


Bloody Cherry

by Nanostin



Category: New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Angst, Cheating, Delusions, F/M, Fluff, Jealousy, Love Confessions, Murder, Obsession, Past Relationship(s), Rejection, Sexual Tension, Yandere, all the characters are terrible people in their own special way, and the violence isn't that graphic, but I put them warnings anyway for sensitive viewers, envy - Freeform, i'll find a way to make all the chapter titles cherry related and you'll appreciate it, if your reading for the saioma then you'll be heavily dissapointed, the rape isn't actually talked about
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-02
Updated: 2019-03-24
Packaged: 2019-07-05 19:42:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 10
Words: 29,815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15870432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nanostin/pseuds/Nanostin
Summary: Himiko Yumeno is like a cherry, innocent and pure, but even with a symbol of innocence, most cherries come in red.Himiko falls in love with Kokichi who's already taken by Kaede, but in her delusional mind, she's a kind-hearted mage who has to save her healer from the wicked witch who has him under her spell.





	1. White Cherry Stained in Red

**Author's Note:**

> I want to do a yandere story but make it a challenge for me, so I decided to make an oumeno story where Himiko's the yandere. My biggest goal is making her in character, this is "Himiko if she was a yandere", not "yandere!Himiko"; I hope I succeed in that.

The girl stares at the kitchen knife that is hanging off the edge of the sink. It’s been so long that she’s been in the same small house that this man trusts her now, knowing that she’s too much of a coward to escape even when he’s not in the same room. He trusts her so much that even when she goes to pick up the knife, one that’s strong enough to kill, he doesn’t stop her. Is this kind of trust better than when she was bound up in the basement, not even being able to itch herself? Yes, but it’s not completely wonderful either. His trust is mocking, it only reminds her of how much she’s broken down, how weak she’s become and how much that she no longer wants to attempt in doing anything because to her, there’s no point in trying. It’s too much work to think about.

But now she has the knife in her hands and he’s not stopping her. She could do it, she could cut him hard enough to create an injury that will easily let her escape; or she could receive a punishment that’s worse than what she’s ever gotten before, if that’s possible. 

But thinking of how all these months past with being with this sick man and repeating the same horrible routine, a punishment didn’t bother her so much as a chance to escape. No, she’s still afraid. The only way to escape without having him punish her is to have him dead. Murder, she can do that, after all those bruises and other terrible things she’s gotten scattered around her body, she could definitely slay the heart of this man, take the life of this human being… She placed the knife back, dismissing the thought.

. . .

How could she not have had the courage to stab him before? As the moonlight shines on the bed, they’re shown to be complete opposites. The moon is beautiful while the bed is completely dirty in all kinds of body fluids. Sex toys are all around her and she felt nauseous from the odor that was present. The blanket wasn’t on her and so wasn’t anything else. To the side of her, the man slept. She doesn’t care anymore, after another night of the same thing, she only wants to strip away something precious to him just as he did to her.

Slowly and cautiously, she got out of bed, afraid to make any sound in fear of waking him up. She could feel her heart without having to put her hand against it, it felt unusually heavy.

The knife shook in her hand as she returned back to the room. She needs to be strong with this thrust, strong and well aimed. Strong and well aimed, strong and well aimed, strong and- an ear-piercing scream filled the room, but for once, it wasn’t just hers. She shut her eyes, her body beginning to move on its own. Once she opened her eyes again, she saw the man’s piercing pupils, he was still alive, but on his last breath. This is fine, he doesn’t matter, what matters is the blood she has splattered on her body as well as the ones oozing out of his body. 

Murder, she really resorted to murder; no matter how disgusted this man made her feel about herself with the games he played, she has never felt as disgusted as she does now. She feels heavy like something was going to come out. She's not used to such a gruesome scene. Dizzy, she feels dizzy and before she realized that that dizziness is a feeling of nausea, she threw up.

The scene has become more disgusting than before now with the new colours of brown, yellow, and green adding on to the red, and so has the odor. After all these months, the cops would probably finally find her in the worst time, she’s going to be living in prison her whole life thanks to murder. She feels so sick and tired, she needs to calm down.

“Magic… This is just a-an act of magic! He was there at some point, and th-then he disappeared!” the redhead forced herself to smile and repeated that logic until it calmed her down just the slightest. It’s fine, she just used her talented magic abilities to make someone disappear. For once she’s glad that his house is located close to the woods with no neighbors nearby, and for once she didn’t have to worry about the broken lock as she took a shower.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> By the way, all of the chapters are inspired by different songs for the music album "Crybaby", and this one is inspired by "Milk and Cookies".


	2. Cherry Girl's First Love

Walking into town without knowing where she was actually going, Himiko was able to find a convenience store where she asked a customer if she could use her phone and called her parents.

. . .

It's been two months since she came back to the average world, and in one of those months, she spent it isolating herself in her room. But now she goes to school, where she's swarmed by her classmates acting friendly to her from what she could tell is out of pity.

She never wants to think about those times, she wants to forget, but with the way people are treating her so fragility, it's not like she could. She doesn't want to talk with anyone, she just wants to cover her face on her desk and be forgotten, and although most people get the hint, some are just too clingy.

“Himiko, how about once school ends we go out for karaoke?” Tenko suggested with a smile. Unlike everything else, Tenko hasn't changed after all these months, which Himiko wish she did. She's still loud and persistent and pushy, and right now the little girl feels more annoyed than ever by her.

“I don't want to go out anywhere, it's too much work…” Himiko groaned.

“Come on, Himiko, it'll be fun!”

‘Why does she have to be so pushy like this? Why can't she just leave me alone or at least ask once and give up? Seriously, why do I even let her talk to me? She's been getting a lot more annoying…’ Himiko complained in her head. Lately, she's been feeling very tired, to the point where she has a hard time just getting out of bed, and she definitely doesn't want to deal with someone as loud and joyful as Tenko.

“Are you okay, Himiko?” Tsumugi butts in with that cursed question, most to Himiko’s dismay. Ever since she's come back to school this same stupid question has been asked to her every time by different people.

Why did they have to figure out that she was kidnapped? Why can't they just have assumed that she was taking a long break from school due to laziness? Well, to be fair, it's not like the past her would've done that, the past her wasn't nearly as lazy.

Everything seems to have changed in life including her, just how long has she been away?

She has to answer with something to Tsumugi so her and Tenko won't give her that irritating look of concern on their faces. “Yeah, I'm okay, why wouldn't I be?” She answers simply in a way like she has no reason to not feel okay.

What happened back there was nothing, it doesn't matter to her, plus she used magic, real-life magic, like a real mage. It was magical, it made her life magical, she lives a magical life now, why would she be anything but okay?

“Oh nothing, I guess you're right…” Tsumugi gives a slight smile as she and Tenko accept her reply. 

‘Good, they're getting quiet. I'm fine, that question is completely unnecessary.’

“Oh come on, Himiko, you really think that you could get away with a lie like that?” A voice that hasn't been directed to her since she came back to school spoke to her. ‘What's Kokichi doing butting into my business, he's been ignoring me for days even though he sits right in front of me and now he decides to annoy me?’

“I'm not lying, I'm doing alright,” Himiko replied to him firmly. From what she remembers of him, he's been nothing but a complete nuisance to her.

“I've been seeing that charade of yours go on for days you know, you can't fool me. I hate liars, especially ones who lie to themselves, so how about you stop lying?” he says rather demanding.

“Are you kidding me? You’re the biggest liar in this school! What makes you think you have the rights to tell me to stop lying?” Himiko finds it rather hard to speak as she feels her hands turn into tight fists and shaking uncontrollably, “What do you know about how I feel!?” When she said that sentence, the magician was surprised at how high her voice became, and she just then notice something thin trail down both of her cheeks.

‘Wait… am I crying?’ Himiko can't seem to recall the last time she cried since that accident or the last time she showed any kind of emotion other than being tired. 

When she heard Tenko shout at Kokichi for making her cry is when she confirmed that she really is crying. Although now being fully aware of this, she couldn’t seem to stop nor did she want to.

The redhead heard the teacher order the people around her to get back to work and for her to go to the counselor. Oh great, how she absolutely dreads seeing the counselor and that grim grey office, but she went anyway. 

Lucky for her, her counselor led her to a small soundproof room where she could be alone. Once she was alone, she began to wail to herself about how terrible that experience is and how she wishes that she could just forget about it, not caring for how loud she was being. She felt as if she was washing away everything that laid heavily on her entire body for the past months.

For once, she didn't feel completely tired, she didn't feel dead. Instead, she felt sleepy, actually sleepy, and not just the kind of sleepy that she forces herself to feel so she could sleep and let the day go by. 

How come Kokichi knew how to make her feel better? How come from everyone who came to her, people who are all caring and supportive of one another, he's the only one who knew the right words to say to her? Is he some kind of magic healer and she just doesn't know it? 

Although feeling sleepy and her counselor advising her to stay in the office for the rest of the day or go home, she still went back to class.

When she returned, she could feel her classmates peering at her in worry, but she doesn’t care, she’s only staring at the one person who isn't peering at her. She tries to do her work but finds that she can't focus due to the purple haired boy being right in front of her, earning all of her focus without even interacting with her in any way.

Is he actually magical? He must be, he's the only one who gives her a feeling of comfort even with him being annoying to her in the past. She feels that she wants to stay with him as much as she can, for he's the one who possesses the magic to make her feel warmth. She has faith in him, that at some point, he'll fully recover her. 

She's not falling in love with him, is she? How can she fall in love with someone so easily? But still, she feels her heart racing for something that she knows is other than fear as she stares at him.

As her vision gets blurry, she guesses that she is in love, somehow. Everything turned pitch black and this time, ever since she got kidnapped, she didn’t feel the need to be alerted as she drifted off into sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is inspired by the song "Crybaby".


	3. The Cherry Blossoms

The next morning was the only time since the kidnapping that Himiko didn't have to motivate herself so hard to get out of bed. Knowing that she gets to see Kokichi again once she arrives at school, she wished that her mother was able to drive the car a lot faster than the speed limit.

It's a good thing their house isn't that far away from the school, the only reason why her mother drives her now is that her parents have become a lot more protecting of her, which she appreciates.

Once in class, she realized that she got in early, the only other student present is Shuichi. She feels like there's something important that she has to remember about this boy, what was it again?

Catching her stare, the detective gave her a friendly wave and she waved back, thinking that she was doing at least a slight smile without knowing that her lips barely moved at all from its neutral state.

She stopped staring at him so she won't creep him out and couldn't get the question out of her head of what was important to her about this boy.

A few more people entered the room and when Kokichi skipped in, her slowly drifting patients changed to excitement.

Her savior has arrived, and she finds trouble in deciding what to do. ‘Should I talk to him? Or give a small gesture and leave it at that? Maybe I should wait for him to talk to me-’ she stopped thinking when she heard the sound of his voice. “Hey Shuichi, how is your morning so far?” Kokichi calls out to him with a bright smile.

Himiko felt disappointment in not being the first person he talked to.

“It's been fine so far,” Shuichi simply replies, not bothering to face him.

“That’s good, an amazing detective like you only deserves the best of things!” the leader praises him, “So, have you been solving any mysteries that's been on your mind? Any at all?”

“Only small things…” Shuichi sounded like he was trying to end the conversation. 

As they talked to one another, it finally hit Himiko as to what she was forgetting, Kokichi has a crush on Shuichi, and, from what she could tell, it's a major crush too. How could she have forgotten that? He's had a crush on him ever since their first year of high school. She begins to wonder how far Kokichi’s relationship with Shuichi has gone. He hasn't confessed to the detective yet, has he? It doesn't sound like it from their interaction.

It has never frustrated her more about how she's so lost with her classmates and their life as it does now. 

‘It's fine, he probably hasn't confessed yet, his crush could easily be changed,’ she tries to comfort herself, believing that she still has a chance, ‘Besides, Shuichi likes Kaede, doesn't he…?’

She hears the door open and sees Kaede step into the room. Perfect Kaede with her friendly glow and womanly body, the girl who tries to get along with everyone. She annoys Himiko ever since they first met in middle school due to her always trying to be friends with her. She seems like the kind of girl who knows that if just one person doesn't like her, she'll get upset, and so Himiko makes sure to make it really apparent that she doesn't want to be her friend.

But if Kaede is going out with Shuichi, then the magician will completely make a one-eighty on her negative opinion about her and begin to really love her existence.

“Kaede!” Kokichi joyfully called out to the pianist as he ran up to her, embracing her into a hug. Catching her balance, Kaede laughed as she caressed the top of his head, “You're always so energetic in the morning.”

‘What? What's going on? Why's Kokichi hugging her? Since when did they have any kind of relationship?’ Himiko's having a hard time processing what she's seeing, ‘This can't be right, it doesn't make sense! Last time Kokichi had a crush on Shuichi, how could he suddenly be attached to Kaede like this?’

“I only become this energized when I see you, you know!” he got on his tippy toes to give her a peck on the cheek and buried his face into her chest, “I loved the song you made specifically for me by the way, why don't you play it again today?”

‘Why is he putting so much emphasis over liking Kaede? He hasn't been doing this every day, has he? I haven't noticed, it's like he's trying to rub it in my face or something, it's completely unnatural… But then again, he wasn't like this when Kaede wasn't around, in fact, he was focusing on me! Heck, he only noticed that I was lying to myself because he was focusing on me! So why does he love her and not me? He must be under a spell… That must be it! It's because of magic! Why else would he be in love with Kaede? Why would anyone like Kaede? She's a basic girl, there's nothing special about her,’ Himiko began to believe that her theory was becoming more truer, ‘She must be using some kind of dark magic on him! He's my healer, he's supposed to be mine! He's made to be mine! He can't actually like her, there's no way! She must be a witch!’

As Himiko thought about this, she found a strong sense of justice coming to her as if she somehow has to take action.

“Oh, do you hear that? I think the teacher's coming,” Shuichi suddenly announced. Although there were no footsteps to be heard in the hallway, Kaede still believed him and nudged Kokichi off her so she could get to her seat. Kokichi puffed his cheek out at Shuichi like an upset child before going to his seat as well.

As class went on, Himiko could only think of how she's going to break the spell that she's so sure Kokichi is under. What happens in the stories with a situation such as this? The hero makes the victim snap out of it by making them realize that they love them. That's what the mage has to do, she has to save her lover by making him realize that he likes her.

What is the perfect date for a young couple? From what she read in the storybooks, a good place is at an amusement park. The thought of going on rides and being in a crowded place felt like a pain to her, but if Kokichi is with her, then none of that will matter. Lucky for her, tomorrow is the start of the weekend.

Once the students began talking to one another, Himiko decided that now would be a good time to talk to Kokichi. Hesitantly, she tapped his back, causing him to look up from his work and focus on her.

He tilted his head and asked, “Are you stuck on a question? Because you wouldn't want to copy off of me, I'm putting down random answers.”

“No, that's not it, I'm already almost done with my work, also, you're obviously lying about putting random answers since everything you've written so far is right,” Himiko pointed out. She's straying off from what she wants to tell him, and she can't tell if she's doing it on purpose or not.

“Am I being called out by Himiko!?” Kokichi asked as if he's in complete shock.

Himiko sighed, she needs to get back on course. “Nyeh… You know, there's an amusement park not too far from here, do you want to go with me tomorrow?” she requested, feeling a bit nervous. She felt that the silence between them after she asked that was going on for too long, which didn't help her beating heart. Finally, Kokichi spoke a single word, “Why?”

That one word alone has Himiko’s palms sweating a tsunami as if he just flat out rejected her. “Why? Because I'm trying to get to know my classmates better… my mom says it's good to stay in touch with as many people as possible.”

He stares directly into her eyes. Is he doubting her answer? She feared that he was, so she was relieved when she saw his face go back to its natural happy glow. “Okay! And if you want to get to know more people, then you should invite Kaede too.”

What a good response to completely switch the girl's mood. “I think it's better to deal with one person at a time…” 

“You’re not going to get far like that, come on, I'm sure you two will have fun together!”

‘Why from everyone in this classroom, he insists on taking Kaede? Doesn't he have anyone else to take? Actually, that's a good question, he doesn't seem to be liked by others… does he even care?’ Himiko thought this and gave in, “Okay, Kaede can come too.”

No matter how bitter she felt about Kaede, the cute grin he gave her made her feel all the better. This must be his magic at work, it sure does work charms.

. . .

Once Himiko told her parents about how she wants to go to an amusement park with friends, they had mixed feelings about it. They're glad that their daughter is finally wanting to go out again instead of locking herself in her room the whole day, but at the same time, they felt uncomfortable about her going with friends that they haven't met before.

It's either she brings her parents along with her, or she brings the two people that her parents know very well and trusts in them keeping her safe, Tenko and Angie. Although she hated the sound of both of those options, she decided to go with the second one; it’ll be utterly pathetic to take her parents to what she plans on making a date.

She texted the two girls asking if they want to go to the nearby carnival tomorrow, and she right away got a positive reply from Tenko in all caps and five exclamation points. Hours later, she got a joyful but way less over the top reply from Angie.

And so for the rest of the day, Himiko was going through her closet and playing dress up. She felt that if she keeps this up, then she could be like a normal teenage girl again. Although, after thinking that, negative thoughts immediately started to attack her, thoughts that a murderer like her will never get to be a normal girl no matter how much things she tries to cover her crime with. ‘Covering up a crime? What crime? I'm not covering up anything bad, all I'm covering up is the strong magic that I possess…’ Himiko thought and when she realized that she needs an extra boost to take away any terrible thoughts, she replaced them with a simple question, “I wonder what kind of style Kokichi prefers in a girl…?”

The boy has saved her from feeling anything terrible yet again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Song inspiration: Sippy Cup
> 
>  
> 
> Do you think Kokichi putting so much emphasis in liking Kaede is all in Himiko's head...?


	4. Sweet-Filled Bing Cherry

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> School started at the beginning of September and since then I've been progressing really slowly with my writing. I'm going to assume that I'll update one chapter or two a month, but I could be wrong. To be fair, this chapter is the longest one so far.

Himiko woke up early in the morning by the sound of her alarm clock that she set up last night. The warm morning colours of the sky seem unfamiliar for her to see on a weekend. 

Right, today's the day she goes out to break the curse, she does her usual morning procedures with a lot more passion than ever. She brushes her teeth an extra minute and made sure that no strand of hair stood out. 

With a casual and simple baby blue dress, she buttoned up her collar and put on her small, pink shoulder bag. “Does Kokichi even like a cute style? Maybe I should've gone for something cooler…” Himiko wondered to herself as she looked at her reflection in different angles on her full-body mirror.

Hearing the horn of a car, she put on her shoes right away and rushed outside. She saw Tenko in the driver's seat, who, surprisingly, looked very glum. To the side of her was Angie, who was leaning against her seat and still honking the horn despite seeing that Himiko is already outside. The artist stopped honking the horn only to wave to her with both of her hands and chirp out her name.

‘This is… normal, right? Should I be allowed to do something so normal?’ Himiko thought, getting in the back of the car where she found Kaede at her other side. The pianist gave her a friendly wave and a smile that showed her joyfulness. 

Not wanting to interact with her and yet not wanting to make things awkward by ignoring her, Himiko decided to let her muscles move on their own, and so she ended up giving a quick crooked smile which winced her eye. The seat in the middle wasn't occupied by anyone and she made sure to keep it that way by setting her purse there.

“Oh, hey Himiko… So… is it true that you invited Kokichi?” Tenko asked with no positive spark in her voice.

“Yeah, I invited him and Kaede to come along with us,” she gave a simple reply.

Kaede popped in, “It's true, and I think it's very nice of you to invite me with you-”

“I mean, Kokichi’s technically the one who invited Kaede, but yeah, I invited him,” Himiko quickly cut Kaede off before she began to believe that she had any kind of bond with her.

“Oh, so you invited Kokichi first, huh? Okay, that's cool,” Tenko took a deep breath, bottling up any bad statements she wants to spew about Kokichi, not wanting to upset Himiko since she's finally showing some signs of life.

Once the car arrived at Kokichi’s house, he ran outside and opened the door, kneeling down to face the two. Unfortunately for Himiko, his house is on Kaede’s side of the car. With a grin, he says, “Hi guys~ scootch over.”

Before Kaede could move, Himiko slid herself to the middle, plopping her purse back on her shoulder.

“You know, there's lots of space in the trunk…” Tenko muttered and got a forced dramatic whimper from him in return. He went to the other side of the car and sat next to Himiko.

“Alright, listen, I'm going to tell you the car rules that imply for us girls; no eating, no sticking things out the window, and always have your seat belt on. Now, ahem, for Kokichi… no talking, no touching anything, no looking at any of us girls, no…” as Tenko laid down the rules, her voice was drifting off to the background for Himiko as the girl could only hear her thoughts.

‘He looks cute with that hoodie, and for once his collar bones aren't covered… huh…’ Himiko noticed that their thighs were touching and her heart immediately began to race, but she couldn't tell if it was from being shy or afraid. She pressed her leg above the other.

. . . 

They’re on a roller coaster now, still buckling themselves in. Himiko tried to call Kokichi over to sit next to her, but strangely Kaede’s the one who answered her calls and sat beside her. Although the mage couldn’t tell why the blonde didn’t sit next to her boyfriend, she came to the conclusion that she wants to distract her from him.

“Whoo! Roller coaster!” Kaede cheered, trying to lift the spirit up, “Are you scared, Himiko?”

“No, a mage like me doesn’t get scared of some mortal’s invention…” she responds emotionless, yet shakes subtly. She’ll be fine, her healer’s near here, she’s safe, so she comforts herself with.

Himiko brought the heavy seatbelt down on her shoulders and held on to the handle as she watched Kaede do the same. ‘I… I could loosen up the buckle right now, I could lift it up just a little and sent her falling. I could have her seatbelt loosened and push her off if I wanted to, I could use my magic to make her fly…’ Himiko’s thoughts came to an end once the worker secured the buckle of the pianist’s belt firmly.

. . .

“Woah! Look, it's the park mascot, Usami! She's so cute!” Tenko pointed excitedly at the person dressed in an animal suit of the bunny mascot.

“There's probably a sweaty guy inside there,” Kokichi pointed out to mess with her. “No way! Usami isn't some guy in a suit, she's the real deal!” Tenko objected, clinging on to her childish belief. They broke out into an argument, and although it was clear that Kokichi was just trying to get her worked up, Tenko was too blind with passionate rage to notice.

It's nice to see Kokichi with a girl other than Kaede, and Himiko wouldn't be lying if she says that she's not jealous of Tenko, but of course, she would like it more if he'd pay attention to her. In fact, he seems to be giving attention to everyone but her; he keeps messing around with Tenko and creeping people out with Angie by talking to strangers about blood sacrifice. She feels a sense of sadness by this, Kokichi is her healer, isn't he? Healers aren't supposed to make people feel pain…

“Himiko, do you want to go on a ride together?” Kaede asked, seeing that she wasn't interacting with anyone or anything. The mage rolled her eyes and thought, ‘This is one of her attempts to befriend me, isn't it? What's her goal, anyway? I'm sure she has some kind of ulterior motive…’

Before she could answer, Kokichi came running up to the pianist with a single ice cream on a cone. “Kaede~ let's share this ice cream together!” 

“You don’t have enough money to buy two?” Kaede asked.

“No, I do,” the leader replied simply and grinned a little wider, “If you want, I’ll buy one for you, let’s just pretend to eat this ice cream together first so I could get a good picture.”

“Okay,” the blonde kneeled down a bit to reach the ice cream and was pulled in by Kokichi, having one of his arms around her shoulders as the other one held up his phone to take a picture. “This pose is actually pretty embarrassing…” Kaede blushed. Kokichi took the picture and once viewing it, awed, “Your embarrassed look is such a cute touch~!”

He seems to be taking a lot of pictures of him and Kaede, setting up scenes, and is always doing something on his phone right after that. ‘Since when was he so into photography? And what’s he doing on his phone anyway? Is he posting the pictures or something?’ Himiko was more than confused and would love to find out. It was just so unnatural to her, so forced, that her belief of him being under a spell began to seem more and more believable to her.

Soon, four of the group of five had ice cream of their own, Himiko deciding to not get any. She sat next to the boy on the bench as he licked away on his single scoop of ice cream, Kaede on the other side of him. She believed that she has to make her move, or else all this energy she’s forcing herself to have will be all for naught. She noticed a side of his ice cream melting onto the cone and saw her chance. In a rush of thought, she warned, “Kokichi, watch out, your ice creams dripping!” 

“Where-?” Before Kokichi had time to lift his tongue from the top of the treat, Himiko jotted towards the side of the cone. For a millisecond it seemed that everything has frozen still as the mage looked up with a rush of nerves at the leader, his tongue still sticking out and his mind still not fully adjusted. She pulled out right away and leaned away from him, pressing hard against her lips with her hands almost forming a fist, heat running all throughout her face. 

‘Why are you getting so nervous for something as small as this? You’ve done bigger things, like...like...like nothing.’

She could feel the boy staring at her and then, “Wow Himiko, how much energy did you have to use for that?”

She felt as if that was such an interesting response, she asked herself, ‘Is he teasing me?’

“You sure you don’t want any ice cream, Himiko?” Kaede asked, popping Himiko out of her thoughts. She was surprised to see the pianist treating her nicely like nothing just happened, she was sure that the girl would show some signs of irritation or jealousy, and the fact that she isn’t annoyed the redhead in a way. 

“No, I’m fine…”

“You sure? You could have mines.”

“No thanks.”

“I mean, I don’t really want it, so if you’d like…”

“I’m not hungry!” Himiko stated rather aggressively, her patience reaching its limits. Why is she pestering her like this? She’s reminding the small girl of Tenko.

Angie came twirling over, bubbling, “Come on, friends, let’s go on the carousel!”

“But I’m still eating my ice cream…” Kokichi pouted a bit.

“Don’t care! God says we have to all go on the carousel now,” Angie deadpanned him with a smile.

“Well, if that’s what God’s saying, then we don’t have a choice, do we?” Kokichi dramatically jumped off the bench and threw his ice cream behind him, having it splatter to the ground, “What are we still doing here, huh? If Angie says that God told her, then there’s no question about it. I mean, it’s not like she could ever lie about this, she’s God’s vessel!”

Not only was he joking around, but he was pushing her act against her. Still, the artist took it with no hesitation, “Yep, that’s right.”

“Come on, let’s go!” Kokichi grabbed a hold of her wrist and ran off with her towards the carousel. Himiko believes that she won’t be lying if she says that she’s not jealous of Angie, Angie’s not in the story between her, Kokichi, and Kaede. She’s not worried, but still, looking to her side, she couldn’t help but tell that Kaede didn’t look bothered in the slightest; she must be very confident about her spell.

Making it inside the gates of the carousel, Himiko spotted Kokichi sitting in one of the pairs seat, which surprised her since she expected him to find these things boring since they don’t move up and down like the animals. “Kaede! Kaede! Come sit next to me!” the leader frantically waved one of his arms for the girl, not stopping in giving attention until she sat down beside him. He then proceeded to let his hand overlap hers and give her a peck on the cheek, snapping a picture. He rose after he made sure the picture was good and said, “Thanks sweetie, I’m making this my background.”

“You’re not going to go on the ride?” Kaede questioned puzzlingly.

“Not on that bench I’m not, I’m going on a horse.”

For however annoyed and frustrated Himiko felt when they sat on the bench together, it was all washed away with an off yet happy feeling once Kokichi got up. The spell must be breaking, he must be wanting to get close to the mage right now as she sat behind them on the white horse. Yes, finally he’s coming to her, going to pay attention to her; but he does not. Instead, he ran to the horse in front of the bench on the side of Tenko’s horse, leaving both of the girls feeling upset.

Tenko scrunched her eyebrows as if she was eyeing a splattered bug, “Excuse me, who allowed a menace like you to get on this ride? Or any ride? I thought the workers kicked you out of this park by now.”

Kokichi laughed and chirped, “Come on, Tenko~ I will be your knight in shining armor!” It’s clear that he said that only to get her mad, and she immediately took the bait. “I don’t need a knight in shining armor, I got neo-aikido on my side!” she huffed.

“Oh, in that case, could you be my knight in shining armor? I’m such a weak, delicate boy.”

“Boys don’t need protection!”

Angie, who was sitting in front of them, decided to join in, “I could protect you, Kokichi, I have Atua on my side.”

“Wow, protection from God, I definitely feel safe now!”

Himiko watched them with melancholy. ‘Well, I shouldn’t feel too sad, he’s not with Kaede…’

Just as she thought of the girl’s name, Kaede plopped herself onto the horse beside her. “I don’t remember getting on a carousel since I was a kid, I’m feeling nostalgic,” although Kaede was clearly trying to stir up a conversation, the mage remained quiet. The fact that Kokichi was paying attention to all the girls but her was bothering her, and the way Kaede kept trying to interact with her a lot more than Kokichi bothered her too, strangely enough.

The ride began, and all Himiko could think about is how Kokichi doesn’t have to be near Kaede and he still won’t give any attention to her. Is it possible for a healer to make a person feel a sting of pain? Himiko didn’t think that was right, healers are supposed to help the fighters. As a healer, he’s supposed to be healing her, but right now, that certainly wasn’t the case.

Once the ride finished and they all exited the gate, Kokichi skipped up to Himiko. “Hey, we should’ve sat next to each other, we would’ve looked natural together.”

“Natural?” Himiko felt whatever negative thoughts she once had wash away, being replaced with pure, innocent happiness.

“Yeah, we both look like kids, so we’d be like two kids riding on a carousel together. The perfect imagery!”

She felt silly for ever questioning his healing abilities, no matter how bad she feels, his magic works with the lightest touch.

As it began to get late, Kokichi insisted in going on the Ferris wheel before they left. Unusually, the carts only hold two people instead of four, and Himiko took that as her opportunity. “Hey Kokichi, I could be your part-” before she could grab his attention, he spoke, “Come on, Kaede, it’s a cart for two people! Let’s go in together!”

Kaede agreed to go with him, telling him that he has to promise that he won’t suddenly get off this bench too. “Bahh~ I promise!” Kokichi claimed, squeezing her into a hug like a kid promising to their parents that they’ll play with the toy they want to own. Himiko unknowingly puffed her cheeks out a little. Why was she playing fair, trying to get Kokichi to be with her when Kaede wasn’t being fair with that spell she cast? She could use her magic right now to make Kaede disappear, and then all would be right and she’ll live a happy life with Kokichi where he’ll make her never feel or think anything negative ever again.

“Ah… actually, I suddenly don’t feel so good,” Kaede suddenly claimed, holding on to her stomach, “I think I need a break from the rides.”

“Seriously…?” Kokichi eyed her questioningly, and although he was positive that she was lying, he never pointed it out, not wanting to upset her.

Her sudden feeling of illness did come out of nowhere, but Himiko decided to not waste her time pondering on that. “Kokichi, I could go with you.”

He turned his attention from his girlfriend to her and smiled, “Aw, sweet, the magician girl! You should use your magic once we get in there to make the ride less boring.”

“Nyeh… I’ll see what I can do,” Himiko responded like she doesn’t care, but inside she couldn’t be any more excited. She’s going to use her magic, magic in breaking the spell.

“No fair! I want to go with Himiko!” Tenko complained, causing Himiko to give her an annoyed glare.

“I have an idea! Tenko and Himiko can go together and I’ll go with Kokichi,” Angie offered, “It’s a good idea, no? Atua says it’s a good idea.”

Himiko’s shoulders dropped, seeing that everyone will most likely follow Angie’s idea even if she protested. “Nope! I claimed the magical girl, you’re going to have to go with the psycho artist, Tenko,” Kokichi stuck his tongue out at her mockingly.

‘He chose me? In the end, he chose me from these two other girls?’ Himiko couldn’t help but blush, ‘Well, I mean, of course he did. The only reason he hasn’t been choosing me is because Kaede’s in the way, but right now, Kaede’s not an option.’

Tenko complained even more and was calmed down by Kaede, reminding her that Himiko’s the one who wants to go with Kokichi in the first place.

Once they got on the ride, Himiko was disappointed to find out that it isn’t as magical as she thought it’ll be; Kokichi has only been looking down at his phone, texting away. Curiosity finally overcoming her, Himiko asks, “Who are you texting?”

Kokichi looked up at her for the first time since they got on the ride and looked amused by her curiosity. “Would you really like to know?”

“I mean, you’ve been typing on your phone all day…” just after Himiko muttered that she heard a ring from her phone. She took it out and saw a notification, a message of a sticker with hearts and the words, “You’re cute” has been sent to her from Kokichi. Whenever he did so to avoid answering her question or not, she felt joyful either way. “Smooth,” she stated as if she was unimpressed and continued, “Alright then, I have another question for you, do you really like Kaede?”

Kokichi stared at her with an unreadable expression, his lips faltering from being a grin or a frown. At first, he was going to answer as if she asked “Why do you like Kaede?” until he processed that she’s asking if he truly does like the girl. He found this to be such a strange question and for four whole seconds remained quiet, not knowing why the mage would ask him that until he believed that she’s probably just asking because she views him as a huge compulsive liar. “Of course I love Kaede! She’s like, perfect queen material.”

Himiko didn’t say a word, staring out the window at the building lights beneath them that glowed strongly thanks to the night sky. With all the lights on, there were no stars to show. She still had the same slight frown on her face for when she asked the question. Is she doubting his answer? No, it’s not that she’s doubting it, it just seems that she didn’t hear exactly what she wanted to hear.

“If… If I told you that I’m afraid of heights, would you feel comfortable holding my hand to make me feel better?” Himiko asked, still not turning her eyes away from the view outside. He answers back, “Sure, if that was true.”

It’s not true, and right now, to Himiko, that seems to be the only thing she fully knows is not true.

They stayed silent for the rest of the ride, and Himiko remained that way throughout the whole car ride back home until she got to her room where she laid herself on bed, resting her worn out body and spoke to herself, “What if the spell that Kaede cast isn’t even real? Kokichi seemed genuinely happy when he said he liked her, if I mess things up between them then I’ll only be hurting the one who helped me, won’t I? Yeah, perhaps I’m wrong about this whole story, maybe Kokichi is supposed to be the normal, growing teenage boy who found love with the normal, growing teenage girl, and I'm supposed to be the completely not normal mage who’s meant to let her existence slowly wash away into nothingness…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Song: Carousel
> 
> Oh boy, that was really fluffy, wasn't it? Still, there's another kind of tone lingering in the air throughout the whole chapter.


	5. Cherry Tree in Full Growth

Himiko felt a lot more tired this morning compared to the last few days, it seems that Kokichi’s magic is wearing out on her if he was able to do any in the first place. She didn’t even have much of a reason to go to school other than because she didn’t want to fall into isolation once more. However, once she was in class she was beginning to regret coming, especially since Kokichi is absent. Well, she supposes that seeing him won’t help her too much, perhaps even make her feel worse. 

She hates how she ever thought that there was ever someone who was able to help her, that Kokichi belonged to her; of course he doesn’t, he belongs to Kaede, he wants to be with Kaede, he himself chose to be with her. 

Himiko doesn’t want to interact with anyone, she just wants to keep her head down on her desk until class ends. She heard someone sit in front of her to where the leader usually sits and looked up with a bit of hope only for it to break once she saw Kaede. 

“What’s wrong, Himiko? You seem sad, did you not enjoy yesterday?” Kaede asked with worry.

Seeing the blonde struck the girl with the feeling of, surprisingly, guilt. That’s the girl whom she had such repulsive thoughts of, terrible, criminal thoughts; whom, in the end, she most likely thought wrong about.

After being silent for quite a while, she responds, “No, I’m just tired…”

Kaede was about to say something but paused and asked hesitantly, “Are you upset that Kokichi’s not here?”

The mage popped her head up a little in surprise. “No, I don’t care…”

“Do you… Do you like Kokichi?”

Her head was fully up now. ‘What? She knows? How can she know? I mean, if she really is a witch then it’ll be obvious to how she knows… no, she must have just read me out,’ the mage realizes that she has to answer and says, “Does that upset you?”

Kaede’s eyes widened for a second before frantically waving her hands around and stammering, “N-no, it’s fine! I understand, and, besides, I trust you.”

‘Does she trust me or is she just that confident about her spell? No- I need to stop this, Kaede’s a normal girl…’ Himiko felt herself sink even lower in negativity than she’s felt before; she rests her face on her arms and doesn’t look up at the pianist. Kaede’s trust and Kokichi’s genuine feelings and the dumb belief she had before made her want to cry, yet she finds herself not being able to. 

“I’m sorry,” she begins to apologize, still covering her face in her arms, “I know you guys are together… I know he honestly loves you, I’m sorry…”

“You don’t have to apologize, it’s fine,” Kaede tried to comfort her, reaching a hand out for her head but retracting it half-way.

“I feel as if no guy would actually love me…” Himiko began to drift into a vent, “I mean, I look like a child and… I feel disgusting. No guy would love me, I know that Kokichi would never love me, even if he wasn’t dating you. I’m-”

“That’s not true!” Kaede suddenly interjected, gaining Himiko’s curiosity. She peeks up a bit and arches her eyebrows, “What do you mean?”

“I mean…” Kaede seemed to be debating for if she should be saying what’s on her mind and answers slowly, “He might not like you now, but he use to.”

“What?” her back is fully straight up now.

“He had a major crush on you back in middle school, he told me. He said not to tell you though...”

“He did…?” everything around Himiko went mute, the only thing she’s able to hear is her thoughts. ‘He liked me? Kaede’s telling me that he liked me? That means… it must be true! Of course it’s true! I don’t have to doubt my belief now, Kaede basically admitted that he likes me before she came with that spell of hers. He really does belong to me!’

The magician lit up, a smile glowing on her face. At that moment, absolutely every feeling of guilt or doubt washed over her and was replaced with strong belief. Finally, she felt as if she was beginning to know the truth. She doesn’t remember ever getting along with Kokichi back in middle school, all she remembers is that he’d get her worked up, but if Kaede herself admitted to Kokichi liking her, then it must be true.

The bell rings and Himiko hops out of her seat, this is one of the strongest surges of energy she’s felt from a long time. “Thanks, Kaede, I feel a lot better now.”

“Oh really? That’s great! I’m so happy I could help you,” Kaede said all she could as Himiko walked away from her and out of the class. She looks happy, after a long time she actually looks completely happy, yet the blonde still had that tiny voice in her head that was asking her if it was right to let the redhead know such a thing.

She was about to leave until she saw Shuichi walking over to her. “Kaede, is Kokichi supposed to be sick?”

“‘Supposed to be’?” she repeats his phrasing, “He is sick, he told me to visit him when school’s over.”

“Yeah, I guess so,” Shuichi gave that vague response and left. Kaede couldn’t help but think about how oddly he phrased his sentences.

Walking in the halls, Himiko was met with Tenko and Angie. “I couldn’t help but notice that you look very happy today, Himiko, did something good happen?” Tenko asked.

“I feel that my abilities as a mage have leveled up is all,” the small girl gives a simple response, not feeling annoyed in the slightest by Tenko’s presence.

“Something good happened to me!” Angie claimed, “My parents announced that we’ll be taking a vacation to my home island for a whole two months in the Spring, it’s going to be so divine!”

“Why do you seem so happy? That means that you won’t be seeing us for two months!” Tenko pouted.

Angie tilted her head, “Yeah, so?”

“‘So’!? At least show a little sign of missing your friends!” The two began to bicker, Himiko walking far ahead of them without even realizing. Kokichi likes her, that’s all she could think about. She is a normal girl, there’s nothing wrong with her in the slightest, she’s absolutely right. The boy who keeps her from feeling or thinking about anything bad really likes her, even Kaede, the witch who cast her spell on him, had to admit it to her. Her life is so magical, and she loves it, and soon she’ll get herself her happy ending. Magic is what makes her life so wonderful, magic and him. She wants to see him so badly.

She sends him a text, “Why aren’t you at school?” 

A reply was immediately received, “I’m sick.”

“How so?”

A picture of a bird couple was sent her way. “Because of them, they’ve been on that branch next to my room for days. They’re the reason I’m sick, they’ve made me lovesick.”

Himiko finds that he could be really corny at times, but it’s cute. “You’re pretending to be sick so you can skip school, aren’t you?”

She gets an exaggerated response, “Maaaybeeeeee…”

The girl smiles as she puts her phone back in her backpack, she’s glad that he’s okay.

. . .

“You see that, Himiko? I could do lame card tricks too.”

Himiko growled in frustration, “I don’t use tricks, I use real magic! That’s why my performance is ten times better than yours!”

“Oh yeah? If your magic is real then why don’t you show me something that isn’t party tricks level?”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know, how about you use it to grow that flat chest of yours?”

“I-I don’t need my magic to help my body grow! You’ll see, once I’m in high school I’ll grow like crazy!” Himiko declared and stomped away, more motivated than ever to show a performance that’ll knock that bratty liar’s pants off.

As the talent show went on, Himiko was the last to go. She performed popular tricks such as taking a bunny out of her hat and cutting a volunteer in half. The crowd seemed to enjoy it when she turned a playing card into a dove, their cheers really boosted her enthusiasm. Although, she couldn’t help to not focus on Kokichi who was out in the crowd, grinning yet still laid back on his seat. He seems to be amused, but for another reason than the extraordinary magic Himiko was performing.

For her last trick, the small girl had her upper body detach from her lower body without using any kind of cuts, her upper body levitating all the way to the top of the stage lights. Everyone wowed in awe, most on the edge of their seats. She scans the crowd and spots the purple-head, who straightened up his back and showing a lot more teeth from his grin. Although hard to see from how high up she is, she’s sure that his cheeks were glowing from excitement; she’s glad to have impressed him.

Once the curtains closed and Himiko gathered all of her props, she spotted Kokichi and asked him the question that she’s been anticipating in asking, “So, what do you think?”

“I…” he held in his word in thought and then smiled, “I think you’re a good liar!”

Most of her energy was drained from her show, but after hearing that sentence she was brought back to life only to strongly claim how her magic is real and how much of a pain he is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Song: Alphabet Boy
> 
> Himiko fully believes in her belief now, which means starting now, there's going to be a slow burn...


	6. Popping Cherry

Himiko has been a lot more clingy lately, so Kokichi notices. She's been showing up a lot more at school, meeting up with him in more places than their regular classroom unannounced. She's seeing him in the hallways and at lunch now, and he finds it strange for how she's able to track him down so easily. If he wants to joke he'd say that she knows where he is because of her magic, but he knows that the truth is that she must have remembered his schedule. Still, he's not sure as to why she'd observe him so well that she'd remember his daily schedule.

He can't say that he's bothered, even when she ruins every moment that he tries to have with Kaede by getting in between them to announce a “big news” or whining to them of how they're not paying attention to the magic she wants to perform until they both watch her. He's also taken note to how she often “accidentally” keeps tripping on to him whenever they're walking in the halls. He's concluded that she obviously wants attention (something that he can easily relate to) and she finds it the easiest to get attention from him.

He’s fine with it, although Kaede sure isn’t. She makes complaints to him about how Himiko keeps ruining their time together, and that she’s a little worried for her. He assures her that he’s got an idea to make her stop, comforting her with that. She sure does easily trust him, even though everyone knows that he’s a complete liar.

Right now they're at the cafeteria, where Himiko was complaining over how he's texting someone instead of paying attention to her. “Who are you even texting, Kokichi? Is it Kaede?”

“What if it is~?” Kokichi asked with a cheeky grin.

“Nyeh, you're always talking to her!” she pouted, “When did you get so attached to her? It's completely unnatural! You liked Shuichi since freshman year and now you're suddenly hooked to Kaede!”

Kokichi turned his phone off and stared at Himiko with an unreadable expression, his mouth opening just the slightest. ‘Himiko thinks it's unnatural…? Huh,’ Kokichi thinks of what she said and teases her with a lighter expression, “Are you jealous, Himiko?”

She blushes and denies, “N-no! I was only pointing out how it seems off! You're a liar, you know? I have to be at least a bit sceptical for anything you do or claim.”

“Hmm… How about you come over to my house today? We can hang out together, and I promise I won't be on my phone,” Kokichi offers.

“You want me to come to your house? Just me and you?” Himiko asks, her eyes popping open.

“Don't give me that look; my parents are going to be at home, so you can trust me!” Kokichi laughs, “C’mon, we'll have a playdate.”

“Playdate…? That's such a childish word…” Himiko sighed, “But fine, I have nothing better to do today.”

Kokichi pounced himself on her and cheered, “Yay! A day with the magician! You better not spend the whole time lying on my bed!”

“Why would I do that?” Himiko asks as if she doesn't already know about her laziness, leaning away from him to hide any signs of being flustered from his physical contact.

Kokichi knows what he's doing. Himiko's suspicious of him and his relationship with Kaede, but more so that she wants him to spend time with her. This must be because she somehow finds comfort in him. Just one day with her, and she'll be satisfied; after that, she won't be talking to him as much anymore, he's sure of it. During their time together, he'll convince her that he loves Kaede in a natural way and there's nothing off about their relationship, and then she won’t even give him a second thought.

. . .

As Kokichi waited for Himiko to stop by at his house, he couldn't help think about what she said about Shuichi. He's just a little bit mad about how she casually brought it up, although he knows fully well that it's unfair to have any ill feelings for her because of it.

For someone who's been away from school for almost the whole year, she sure does seem to be catching on to him more than the rest of the students do.

He has loved Shuichi, yes; he loved him, confessed to him, and was harshly rejected. That's how he remembers that moment and that's the only way he can think of it, and it irritates the livings out of him to think about till this day. Yes, his relationship with Kaede is unnatural- well, the blonde surely doesn't think so- but the only reason he started dating her was out of spite for Shuichi. Sure, it might be wrong that he's using Kaede without her knowing just to make Shuichi annoyed, but as long as she knows nothing about that and he still treats her right, he sees nothing wrong with it.

Himiko walks out of her backyard and through a neighbour's yard, crossing the street ahead of her. She told her mom that she was going to visit Tenko at her house, who lives across from them, so her mom won't stop her from going over a boy’s house who she doesn't know about. The magician feels guilty for lying to her mother like that, but she knows that if she didn't then she would've been kept in that house without being able to make any kinds of argument.

Kokichi’s house requires her to cross three streets, and to her, that's two streets too many. But she doesn't let it stop her or bring her down, she's excited for the day she's going to spend with her lover. It's going to be him and her for a whole day, being able to spend time together in his house like what she views as a married couple.

As she walks, she tries not to sweat too much, not wanting the scent to clash with the new bottle of perfume she sprayed on for the first time; she doesn't think that lavenders and body fluid go well together.

Standing in front of the front porch, she ruffles out her buttoned shirt, adjusts her skirt, and rings the doorbell. The door opens right away, Kokichi appearing to greet her. “Hiya, Himiko!” he looks her over up and down and comments, “Wow, for someone who's lazy you sure do like to tidy yourself up a lot.”

She honestly doesn't, but if he's able to think so then that clearly shows that she's been dressing up a lot whenever she thinks that she'll be seeing him; such a thought makes her embarrassed.

She stepped inside and noticed how things seemed quiet. “Didn't you say that your parents will be here?” she asked.

“Yeah, but my dad got a call from work and I never knew that my mom was invited by her friend to go out to some sweets place until the last minute,” Kokichi explained.

“Oh, okay…” Himiko took in the information, and although she treats it like no big deal, it actually has a heavy impact on her. She's alone in the house with Kokichi, alone with a boy… the thought of that makes her a bit nervous, to her surprise. 

He leads her to his room, which is full of strange nic nacs like a horse mask and blueprints. “What’s with all the strange stuff?” Himiko asks, going around a bucket on the floor filled to the brim with rocks.

“They’re for my tricks,” Kokichi answered, “but don’t worry Himiko, I would never dream on tricking you… nishishi.”

He phrased it in a suspicious way as a joke, but it still got Himiko putting her guard up. ‘Kokichi does do tricks on people, huh…? But it’s fine, he’s never done a trick on me before since I’ve come back to school,’ she comforts herself with that thought.

“Umm… Let me tidy up a bit,” Kokichi threw a bunch of things that were scattered around his floor, bed, and drawers all into his closet and shut it close. He looked around and gave a thumbs up to show that he’s completed his work.

“So, what should we do?” Himiko asked.

“We’re going to play…” Kokichi took a flat box out from under his bed, “Chutes and Ladders!”

“We’re going to play board games? That sounds fun,” Himiko sat next to him and watched him set up the game. 

Hours pass, and in those hours the two have played with multiple things, be it board games to video games to toys like Kokichi’s remote control helicopter. The only possible way to describe their time together is like elementary kids, like… a playdate.

Himiko found a clear bag in the corner of the bed, tied up nicely with a pink ribbon and containing cookies inside. “What’s this?” Himiko asks, picking it up. Kokichi pounces himself on the bed next to her and answers, “It’s for Kaede, I made the cookies myself.”

Could he have made the cookies exactly on this day with the thought of mind that Himiko thinks his relationship with Kaede is unnatural? Could he have put it in a spot that isn’t popping out yet isn’t completely hidden just for Himiko to find it? Maybe so.

He believes this will make her convinced that he truly does care for Kaede, not realizing that his answer completely slipped past her, for her mind was completely focused on how they were on the bed together. The redhead began to feel warmth all throughout her body, and some of that nerve is a fearful feeling, although she doesn’t understand why.

They’re on the bed together, he’s so close to her, close enough to smell her perfume, and his parents aren’t here; he could easily advance on her, and yet he hopped right off his bed, looking as cheerful and teasing as he always does with her.

“It’s getting late, Himiko, maybe you should go home before your parents start to worry for you,” Kokichi advised, looking out his window where the sun ever so slowly began to set. She seemed unwilling to go, and he added, “I can walk you home if you want.”

“Okay…” she accepted his offer, trying to hide the heavy feeling of disappointment that she felt.

They walked outside together, him not trying to hold her hand even when crossing the street. During the whole walk, she couldn’t help to think about how he never tried to kiss her, never hugged her, even when he so easily could. The whole time, he played with her like a child. Himiko understands, it’s because of that spell; it’s because of that stupid spell that’s causing him from fully healing her, that’s making her tear up the way she is right now next to him as she clutches on the rim of her skirt.

They’re near her house now, just one more street to pass. Kokichi looks down, about to ask her if she enjoyed her time today, and finally notices her wet cheeks. “Himiko? What’s wrong?” he asks, being genuinely confused and worried.

“It’s noth'in…” Himiko comes to a complete stop, trying to hide her face by looking down to the opposite side of him. She gets it, she understands what she has to do, yet she can’t bring herself to do it without hearing consent. She speaks softly, managing to not falter in her wording, “Hey… is it okay if I kiss you?”

The request spun all around Kokichi’s head, bringing out multiple questions. ‘She wants to kiss me? Why? She used to dislike it just when I spoke to her. Why would she want to kiss me? Why would anyone want to kiss me?’

“Please?” Himiko pleads, “You don’t have to kiss back, just let me kiss you and… and I promise I won’t be messing up your time with Kaede anymore. I won’t cling to you anymore.”

‘She was purposely messing up my time with Kaede…?’ he thinks about her proposal and asks, “Just one kiss, right? Just one kiss, and then you’ll be okay? Then you won’t be ruining my time with Kaede?”

“Yes, just one…”

She just wants one kiss, one kiss and then she won’t be questioning his relationship with the pianist, one kiss and then he’ll make Kaede happy that Himiko’s not ruining their time anymore, one kiss and she’ll return back to her old self, to the dopey little magician that he had a crush on back in middle school.

“Okay…” before Kokichi could change his mind Himiko has her lips against his. She seems so… experienced. What happened to her in those long amount of months where she was gone?

She has her arms around his shoulder, her hand taking in his hair, and he doesn’t seem to mind. He kissed Kaede multiple times, yet it never felt like this. Himiko knows exactly what she’s doing, she’s able to make him feel more warmth than he’s ever felt before, and he’s not even kissing back. ‘This is okay, right? Himiko actually likes me, she keeps trying to be near me as much as possible, Kaede doesn’t even sit next to me during lunch. Kaede never gets jealous no matter how much girls I hang with, she never questions me once; but Himiko obviously gets jealous. This is fine, Kaede is probably not serious with our relationship anyway… and I’m only doing this so Himiko would stop bothering her.’ Kokichi piles up a bunch of excuses in his head to try to justify what he’s doing and closes his eyes, finally kissing back as he rests his arms around her back.

Himiko pulls away for a grasp of air and analyzes his reaction. He stares at her, seeming to be having thoughts of his own. His eyebrows are arched and his hair is a bit out of place. ‘Is the spell broken? No, I don’t think it is yet. But… he held me in his arms, I felt so safe…’ she thinks to herself and breaks the silence with, “I could walk home on my own now, my house is nearby, and… my parents will get mad if they see me with a boy, they think I’m at Tenko’s house.”

She giggles and runs away towards her house, leaving Kokichi with his unsettled thoughts. ‘Good girl Himiko has tricked her parents to see me? Just how much naughty things has she been doing?’ Kokichi’s thought on the matter was cut off when he took out his phone and saw the text message that Kaede has sent him. Earlier in the day, he complained to her by text about how Shuichi blocked his number and she replied back, asking, “Did you spam him with memes?” to which he answers with “Yeah.” When it comes to what he texted Shuichi, that answer is a lie. She responds to him now with, “That’s why. Don’t worry Kokichi, you can send me all the memes you want and I’ll still love you.”

Such a silly topic had him hit with a large amount of guilt. Kaede doesn’t even know that he invited Himiko over to his house. ‘This is fine,’ he lies to himself, ‘It’s no big deal, there’s nothing wrong with what I’ve done…’

In her room, Himiko was tightly hugging her pillow, think about her day; of course, not after telling her parents that she “Had a fun time with Tenko.”

Her face is completely red as she thought about the kiss and how he actually kissed back. That means that her magic is working, it’s breaking the spell. Not only that, but the healing magic of his own is working really well for her too. She has to do more, she plans on doing more; do more to break the spell and to receive large amounts of healing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Song: Playdate


	7. Cherry Powder

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for the lovely comments, this seems to be my most successful story and I'm glad that it is; I thought people would be put off by the idea of a yandere Himiko, but it's good to know you like it.

Himiko didn’t want to get up, she wanted to stay in her warm, soft bed and continue to sleep; looking at the snow that gently drops on her windowsill only makes her colder. Although, thinking on how Kokichi’s arms felt when they were around her easily warmed her up.

Outside, Himiko was able to get a good view of the snow. Although this is the first time it snowed this month, there’s enough snow to cover all of the green of the grass. 

Even if she’s weak to the cold, the mage can still appreciate the appearance of the snow. It’s the highest tint of white and sparkles when focused on; it looks beautiful with no flaws to show. 

Himiko brings one of her foot down into the snow, listening to the sound it makes as it gets crushed; the sound is satisfying. When she lifted her foot back up, she was disappointed to see that the whiteness of the snow got tainted with brown due to the mud on her shoes. She doesn’t remember when the soles of her shoes would’ve gotten muddy, but it did, and now the beauty of the snow is ruined.

She sees her mom coming outside with the car keys and gets in the car.

. . .

Kaede isn’t a detective, but she still likes to think that she’s good at observing people and figuring things out, and from the way Kokichi has been keeping things to himself lately, she’s sure that something is very wrong. Maybe if it was someone else that’s been keeping things to their self, then she would have been alright, but Kokichi is very affectionate with her; hugging her, kissing her, making her feel loved in any way possible, and suddenly he’s stopped. 

The last time she remembers him giving her a kiss was a week ago, the same day he told her that he’ll solve the problem with Himiko who kept on interrupting them during their time together. Well, Himiko did stop interrupting their time together so Kaede guesses that Kokichi did solve the problem, but what does that matter if he won’t even talk to her when they’re together?

“Kokichi,” Kaede called out to him, taking him out of whatever thoughts he was having.

“What?” Kokichi asks with no follow-up, with no pet name or a heart filled ‘Kaede, my beloved?’

The pianist smiled playfully and chirped, “I love you~”

Kokichi gave her a confused look as if not knowing why she’d tell him that, but once remembering, his cheeks blushed a bit in pink and he stuttered while avoiding eye contact from her, “Oh, I-I love you too…”

That’s a strange reaction to make, is he getting shy, perhaps? Kaede has never witnessed Kokichi getting shy until now, but any questions as to why that is were blocked away from her thinking that he’s cute.

Trying to avoid eye contact from Kaede led Kokichi to look at Shuichi, who was doing his work and looked up when he felt like he was being watched. He saw the leader stare at him with a bothered look, and he stared back, nudging his head a bit to get him to realize that he’s staring. Kokichi snapped out of his focus and turned back to the front of him where Kaede stood.

Although not showing any signs of it, Kokichi can’t help feeling that Shuichi’s being smug, and it irks him to the highest degree. Shuichi knows absolutely nothing of what happened, he doesn’t even know that Himiko has been with him lately, but Kokichi still feels as if he’s giving him that look that says, “I told you so.”

He feels a poke on his cheek and sees Kaede kneeling down, resting an elbow on his desk and looking as if she’s enjoying herself. She pokes him again, this time to the lips, adding a little “Boop.”

“Oh, is Kaede hinting something to me? What does she want me to do? It seems only a detective could figure it out,” even when he’s lost his spark, he still finds himself trying to take a jab at Shuichi; it’s grown onto him like a habit.

“I want this,” Kaede picked up one of his hands that laid on his desk and gave his knuckles a kiss. He knows what to say at a moment like this, he should say something like, “Only my knuckles get a lovely kiss from Kaede?”, but when he tried letting the words out, he found himself having to push himself to do so; still, he managed to say it. 

The pianist responded by giving him a kiss on the lips; a quick kiss on the lips, a kiss on the lips that didn’t take away the cold he felt in the room or make his body want to immediately kiss back, but rather a kiss on the lips that made his guilt intensify. Her kiss left a feeling in his stomach, but it’s not a feeling of something like butterflies. 

From all of the time he’s been dating her, he’s never felt guilty about hiding so many things from her until now.

He wonders what the magician’s reaction to this is; if she’s restraining herself and failing to hide her envy. Does he want her to feel envious? Turning to the back of him, he sees that she has her face covered on her desk, being completely asleep.

Should he wake her up? He really wants to wake her up; Himiko gets grumpy when her sleep is interrupted, but her drowsy yet irritated face looks adorable and the way she’d tiredly frail her arms at him as if trying to sweep him away is cute. When was the last time he’s had such intentions? The last he remembers is back in middle school, but now he’s in high school, now he’s with Kaede, he shouldn’t have the right to wake her up.

“Oh, Himiko’s asleep? You should wake her up, Kokichi, the bell is about to ring,” Kaede suggests to him after noticing where his eyes have wandered. Kaede said he should do it, she basically gave him permission to wake her up, so he shouldn’t feel bad; sure, Kaede doesn’t know any of his intents but she still gave him permission, he has her consent. Kokichi slowly reached his hand up to lift up Himiko’s hat, but before he could grab a hold of it, Himiko lifted her head up with a drowsy, “Nyeh…?”

Behind her sat Tsumugi, who still held the mechanical pencil she used to poke the back of her head. Tsumugi has done the job, so Kokichi has no reason to interact with her now. He retracts his hand and now finds it difficult to face either Himiko or Kaede now that he knows Himiko could have her attention on him and both of the girls are near each other. Not wanting to look at Shuichi yet not wanting to face the wall, he finds his only option to be to stare down at his desk. He feels guilty, nervous, basically, any feeling that leaves him feeling sick. Trying to keep his body from twitching, he wonders when the bell will ring.

. . .

Himiko forgot that she had a fitness test today in gym class, and she regrets not skipping the class. Gym class is already terrible for her, but doing a fitness test only reminds her of what she hates about herself, it reminds her of her flaws. One-hundred fifty centimetres in height and sixty-eight centimetres in chest size; she hasn’t grown since she was in the seventh grade. Tenko telling her that it’s the shape that matter and not the size only makes her feel uncomfortable, especially since Tenko is well grown; and so is Tsumugi, and Kirumi. All these girls have some type of beauty in their body that Himiko can never achieve with her disgusting body.

Plump lips and red hair; she hates her body. She can’t seem to remember exactly why she hates it, but she does. She hates it, she hates it, she hates it-- one-hundred sixty-seven centimetres in height and ninety centimetres in chest size, that’s what Kaede’s results are. Kaede with her long, blonde hair and thick thighs yet slim waist. She has the perfect height and a great chest size. She doesn’t need to be a witch who casts spells to catch people’s attention, she’s perfect; flawless. She’s beautiful and undamaged, completely undamaged. Himiko hates that, she hates that just as much as she hates her own body.

“Himiko, if you could, I’d like it if you’d come to my party,” Kaede now holds an envelope up to her as the mage was putting her skirt back on after having to change into gym shorts. 

“A party? What for?” Himiko questions, taking the envelope from her cautiously, as if there could possibly be a bomb inside it that would explode in any second.

“Well, I don’t know if you already know, but I was able to perform in a rather grand opera some weeks ago. I didn’t think it was that big of a deal, but Kaito refused to let it die; he insisted on throwing a party. He was even going to throw it in his house until I gave in and said that I’ll be the one hosting in my house, I’d feel bad doing it at his grandparents' house.”

“Nyeh… parties sound tiring…” Himiko droops her head and notices that Kaede is going to start pestering her if she leaves it at that, “but I might come.”

Kaede claps her hands together joyfully at her reply, “That’s good enough to hear. I hope to see you there!”

Why is Kaede being in such good terms with her? Does she really find teasing her that fun? Or is it the fact that even one person not liking her haunts her, since little miss perfect needs everyone to like her? She sure knows how to get on Himiko’s nerves, she doesn’t even have to mention Kokichi.

Oh yes, Kokichi; does Kaede even know about what happened between her and him? It doesn’t seem like she knows, which means that Kokichi kept silent about the thing. In fact, he hasn’t been giving Himiko much attention since that kiss, like he’s purposely avoiding her. ‘Why has he been dodging me? Is it because Kaede figured out her spell was breaking and so she cast an even stronger spell? Or… maybe he’s doing it to protect me, so Kaede won’t find out and try to put a curse on me,’ that last assumption has Himiko smiling happily to herself, the skin of her cheekbones blushing red.

The redhead stares at the invitation and doesn’t bother opening it but rather stuffing it into her backpack.

. . .

Himiko sits in bed, letting her eyes wander to all the fashion dolls in her room that her younger self loved and she can’t bother to get rid of. 

From what she remembers in the web series, these dolls are supposed to be high schoolers. They can have different shapes and sizes, but in the end, they’re still tall, and they’re all well grown in all parts. Fashion dolls are aimed to be an eye candy, this is what people find appealing in appearance.

There is one doll that Himiko finds similar to herself, a little sister for one of the dolls, she’s in elementary. Other than that, there’s the doll with a leg that easily falls off its socket; Himiko was so rough when she played as a kid.

She won’t let this bother her, she won’t let any of this bother her; not the fact that the only doll she can project herself onto is a damaged one or a kid doll, not the fact that Tenko kept on rubbing in the fact that she’s small and flat by calling her “cute and petite” as if that’s supposed to make her feel better, not the fact that literally every other girl in the school she goes to doesn’t look as awkward and childish as she does; so childish that the only people who’d be attracted to her are… are… She feels herself getting sick.

Eyes getting foggy, she doesn’t notice her hand has picked up a blonde fashion doll and is twisting at its face with her thumb. ‘Why are you crying? Don’t cry, stop crying. It’s fine, that moment is what made your magic stronger, it’s what made your life magical,’ a hand cuffs her mouth as the other continues to nudge at the doll’s head, ‘Don’t be afraid, don’t feel sad. He’s there for you, he can help you, he’ll make you feel alright. He’s not here right now, he’s with her. Why’s he still with her? It’s because of her spell, right? It’s not because of her looks, right?’

Himiko’s thoughts drift off from any words, focusing on the sound of her fast, long, unsteady breathing. She gets pulled back to reality when she feels nothing against her thumb anymore and realizes that she popped the head right off the doll’s neck. That beautiful blonde doll, she ruined it and surprisingly… she feels better. 

She won’t do it again, she doesn’t want to do it again, that disappearing spell of hers; but her magic solved that problem, she’ll just use her magic to solve another problem, a different spell.

Himiko decides to read the invitation Kaede handed out to her, wiping at her eyes during the process.

. . .

Kaede’s house is big- well, not too big, but still bigger than Himiko’s house. She has a second floor and a basement, each floor being quite wide. She’s pretty sure that the only kid with a larger house than Kaede in her class is Rantaro. From the looks of it, everyone in her class is at the party. Since the place where decorations and food are set up is on the main floor of the house, Himiko is thinking of going to the basement since she’s pretty sure she won’t find anyone there. Just go through the kitchen and then the living room and then… another room? And one more? She realizes that she’s lost, which she finds embarrassing, to say the least. Kaede’s parents don’t seem to be home either, they probably thought it best to give Kaede some room for her party with her young friends; Himiko’s parents would never do that.

She finds Tenko by a chocolate fountain where she’s dipping multiple fruits into it and filling up the single plate she has in her hands. The fighter notices Himiko and quickly puts the plate down, running up to her and bubbling, “Himiko!”

Her large smile drops into what looks like disappointment. “Aww… you’re not wearing anything fancy. I thought everyone was going to dress up but I seem to be wrong, how embarrassing…”

It’s true that Tenko seems to be the only one wearing a party dress, causing her to stick out like a sore thumb. But even if most people dressed up, Himiko would still be wearing something casual like the simple yellow shirt and blue jeans she has on; not only is it more comfortable but she doesn’t want to stick out.

“Dressing up is a pain, you know…? So, uh… where’s the basement?” Himiko asks as casually as she could.

“Oh, you lost? I could stay by your side!” Tenko insisted.

“No,” Himiko deadpanned her, “just tell me where it is.”

“O-okay,” Tenko smiled nervously, trying not to upset Himiko although feeling like she’s already too late for that, “Just… if you’re ever in trouble, scream and I’ll save you!”

Himiko wonders if Tenko ever thinks about the things she says before she says it, or even after she says it because saying such a thing like “scream for help” really triggered a cord in her, though she’ll keep quiet about it.

Tenko showed Himiko the stairs that lead to the basement, and once going down, Himiko was surprised to see Shuichi there, examining the place as if it’s an escape room. There’s not much to look at other than a desk with a computer, two couches, and a shelf with books and board games; what’s he doing?

“Hi, Shuichi,” Himiko calls out to him, breaking him from his focus. 

“Ah, hi Himiko, I didn’t see you there,” Shuichi admitted what Himiko believes to be obvious, “I never knew you were coming to this party.”

“Well, I did only arrive a while ago…” Himiko states, “What are you doing down here?”

Shuichi stays silent as if he’s trying to think of what to answer with, although the silence isn’t awkward. “I was seeing if Kokichi left any kind of mess in Kaede’s house, I know he likes to visit her a lot.”

“Oh… Has he been visiting her lately?”

“Yes? Why wouldn’t he?” 

Himiko finds herself having to change the subject. “No reason, I guess… So, is he here now?”

Shuichi smiles as if he’s picking up on something. “I don’t know where he is right now, but I did see him in the beginning; are you looking for him?”

“No, it’s just that everyone else seems to be here and I haven’t seen him…” Himiko fibbed, not knowing how much she can get by with the detective.

Shuichi looks like he wants to tell her something and is holding back on it. Finally, he says, “I see. Well, I’m going up now, maybe you should come; it’s best if you’re not alone in a room.”

Himiko finds it odd that he’d have so much care that he’ll be cautious for her, especially considering that they don’t talk much, but feeling herself getting uncomfortable being alone in this empty basement with the rugged floor and closed walls that seem to be getting more close together as if she’s claustrophobic, she decides to follow him up the stairs.

. . . 

It’s been easy for Himiko to avoid Kaede, but now since everyone was in the dining room gathered around her, it wasn’t like she could, especially not when they were calling her over when she told them that she’ll be in the room next to them where the couch was at. So now she stands and watches Kaede sit in her seat with a large cake layered with chocolate frosting that has the words on top, “Congratulations”. From what Himiko was hearing and the way Kaede gasped in awe, Kaito’s the one who brought the cake, and it showed with the way he proudly put down multiple candles onto it like it’s a birthday for a ninety-year-old man. 

“Candles? It’s not my birthday,” Kaede laughed but continued to let him put them on.

“It’s bigger than that, it’s a huge step closer for you to achieve your dream!” Kaito praised.

“Kaito, lighting up that many candles seem like a flame hazard,” Kirumi warned with concern.

“Oh come on, there’s only like, seven candles on here.”

“Sixteen, actually,” Kiibo corrected.

“Exactly,” Kaito lit up the last candle and turned off all the lights. “Alright, Kaede, now make a wish and blow out the candles!”

“This is seriously not how it works,” Korekiyo informed and got a “shush” as a reply from the astronaut. 

“Umm… okay, but before I do, I’d just like to say that I’m grateful that you all care so much that you’d throw a party for me and are proud about my performances,” Kaede thank everyone, and as she spoke, Himiko began to drift off.

‘Kaede’s face looks beautiful even when the lights are off, and the light of the fire only makes things prettier…’ Himiko stares at the candles, still in thought, ‘Everything is pitch black, everyone is pitch black, the only one who shines is Kaede. I was thinking of staying at her house until everyone left, but I don’t have to do that now, do I? There’s an opportunity right here, there’s an opportunity to use my magic without people knowing so, without people figuring out how strong my magic is…”

Himiko’s not next to Kaede, she’s next to Tenko who’s next to Kaede, that much she remembers before she lost her vision to the darkness of the place.

She just has to wait for Kaede to lean, wait for Kaede to lean and be strong in a thrust; be strong, be strong, be strong…

Kaede finishes talking and leans over to blow out the candles. Before she blows out air, she looks up from the candles and asks, “Hold on, where’s Kokichi?”

Just as she asks, she feels herself get hit by a large figure in the back of her shoulder and falls, not fully onto the cake, although not needing it to be full to still feel her nerves race through. Most of the candles went out now despite them not being blown on.

The lights go on, Himiko already having walked further away from where Kaede sat. At that moment, Himiko heard her magic cause completely different sounds than the last big one did; a shriek from Tenko, followed by screaming from Kaede, and finally, to end it all off, a mix of different voices going off in all kinds of range. Oh, and rapid footsteps on the stairs that lead to the upper floor; someone must’ve been up there.

Himiko cast a spell that would change someone’s appearance, but she wasn’t expecting a light show; that was something that she was truly pleased with although she couldn’t show it.

She’s so proud of herself; she’s finally done it, she’s made it so no one would ever want to love a girl like Kaede, she ruined Kaede’s beauty. No one would want to kiss her or hug her or even praise her after this, not even Kokichi.

Wait, Kokichi? She sees him speed past the others, pushing them through; he was so fast, the only way she knew it was him was because of his small figure and purple hair. Is he with Kaede now? Is he helping her out? Is he shouting something? Himiko can’t tell, everyone was gathering in one spot and she couldn’t see a thing with her small height.

She doesn’t understand what’s happening, but she does understand one thing; that sound she’s hearing outside is a siren for an ambulance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Song: Mrs Potato Head


	8. Maraschino Cherry

Shuichi used to like Kokichi, not the way that Kokichi wanted him to, but… he gave him a chance. He tried to justify some things that Kokichi has done when others didn’t and tried to figure him out the best he could. Although, at some point, even before he’s lost all respect for him, he was slowly giving up on figuring him out. Kokichi’s like a puzzle, a puzzle with a thousand pieces yet Shuichi was only able to put together four-hundred of them because the other four-hundred pieces are missing and the hundred that he still has, he’s not able to connect them with the pieces he put together; but still, he knows what the full picture is thanks to the box, and just like that, he knows what Kokichi’s final goal is from what he shows. 

The leader doesn’t want to feel alone, ever since middle school, he never wants to feel alone. Although Shuichi knows this and is probably the only one who realizes this, he was still the one to emphasize on the boy’s loneliness.

He thinks back on it now, back to that day…

Everyone has left the class except for Shuichi, who has cleaning duty, and Kokichi, who seems to want to tell him something. Although it seems like he wants to tell him something important, the boy was only telling him small things that don’t explain why he’d stay in after school.

“The teacher gave you the key, Shuichi? Let’s see if it works for the storage room!”

“Wow, Shuichi, you look so pretty picking candy wrappers off the floor, more pretty than how you look in my fantasies! Just kidding, I have better things to fantasize about, does that upset you?”

All Kokichi was doing was following Shuichi around the room and making his job slower, and from the way it sounds, it doesn’t seem like Kokichi decided to stay just to help him clean, which he’s never yet done so far.

“Hey, hey! I’m really bored. I didn’t decide to stay here with you so I can watch you dust the floor, entertain me!”

Right, he’s definitely not here to help him.

As Shuichi was shelving the books, one fell to the floor. When he took a hold of it to pick it up, he felt Kokichi’s hand go right on top of his, and oddly enough, the boy didn’t seem to be lifting it up anytime soon. Shuichi noticed Kokichi’s eyes rounded a little as he stared directly into his own, and the situation made the detective feel uncomfortable, to say the least.

“We make good partners, wouldn’t you say, Shuichi?” Kokichi asks, breaking the silence.

“Not really, I think we’d make good partners if you’d actually help me,” Shuichi chuckled, only half joking as he took his hand away from Kokichi’s along with the book and placing it on the shelf.

“What? I am helping! I’m making it more entertaining so time will go by faster as you work,” Kokichi defended himself, standing back up. Shuichi thought that if that was really the case, then he wasn’t doing such a good job at it.

“Plus, I didn’t mean partners as small as cleaning partners…” Kokichi speaks with more seriousness in his tone and Shuichi catches on to the way he’s staring at the hand that he set against his.

“Then what kind of partners do you mean? Like friends?” Shuichi asks; he’s sure that he and Kokichi are already friends- well, not best friends, not even good friends, but not as small as acquaintances. 

“Wrong again, detective. Want me to give you a hint that would straight up tell you?” Before Shuichi could answer, Kokichi continues, “It’s that I like you; I really, really like you.”

Kokichi doesn’t sound like he’s joking yet he doesn’t sound that loving either, nor do his eyes. 

Shuichi asks for assurance, “You mean… like lovers?” 

“What do you think, mister detective?”

Kokichi looks confident as if he’s sure that he likes him, but even when Kokichi is so sure of it, Shuichi still doesn't feel anything loving in his voice. Warm, yes, but not loving. It’s like Kokichi is certain that he loves him, but he doesn’t truly know if he does. Shuichi questions at that moment if Kokichi has lied so much that even he himself has forgotten for what’s the truth about him and what’s not.

Well, even if Kokichi doesn’t seem to actually like him, he still seems confident that he does, so Shuichi has to be careful with rejecting him so he doesn’t get too hurt. “I… I do like you, Kokichi, I think you’re really… interesting, but… I don’t believe I could ever like you like that… Besides, I like someone else.”

There’s no falter in Kokichi’s smile when he hears that as if he knew it was coming. “You like someone else? You mean Kaede?”

Shuichi felt a bit surprised from hearing that name; he’s sure he’s not that much of an open book, but then again, this is Kokichi, he’s probably been observing him. He mutters uncomfortably, “Um… ye-yeah… Sorry.”

Just the thought of the pianist has him blushing; maybe he is an open book- well, at least when it comes to Kaede.

“Nishi, I knew it! But, like…” still smiling, Kokichi’s voice lowers to sound more serious, “what’s so great about Kaede? You should stop going for a stupid girl like her and go out with me.”

Shuichi tries to break the uncomfortable feeling of his by chuckling, “Your jokes can be a little rude sometimes…”

“It’s not a joke.”

Shuichi’s smile drops.

“You think I’m lying? It’s the truth; she keeps having these false realities and runs off on her own, which makes her a huge idiot. The fact that she tries to be friends with me is already stupid enough.”

‘Is Kokichi serious right now? How can he be saying this so easily about her? Kaede’s the only one who… no, he must be messing around.’

Kokichi finishes up his talk about her, “That stupidity of hers is going to make her die early.”

No, even if he was messing, Shuichi couldn’t hold back from that, “If you keep being you then you’re going to die alone.”

He didn’t say it aggressively or angry in the slightest, he said it like a simple fact.

Kokichi looked like he was going to say something but suddenly stopped, dropping his smile and putting it back on immediately. “Well, it doesn’t matter, everything I said was a lie! I’m a liar, everything about me is a lie.”

‘He seems like he’s trying too hard to take back what he said…’

“Oh, except for Kaede; I still think she’s an idiot and I still believe you should stop going for her, although, the reason for why you should has changed.”

‘Is he trying to provoke me? I don’t get it, I don’t-’ Shuichi cuts out of his thoughts and admits it out loud, “I don’t get you, Kokichi, I don’t understand you.”

“No? You don’t? Well, I wonder why that is; you are the Ultimate Detective, aren’t you? How many things can you not figure out?” Kokichi’s taunts come off as aggressive, “Well, in any case, I’m sure you’ll eventually figure out everything, you are the greatest detective out there, after all.”

Shuichi doesn’t understand why he keeps emphasizing on how he’s a detective.

He sighs, “Listen, I’m sorry, I just don’t think we can be lovers… I’m sure we can be friends if we both tried. Just stop bad mouthing Kaede like that, she doesn’t deserve it.”

“No worries, I won’t say anything mean about her anymore. In fact, I’m going to be super duper sweet to her! Just for you,” Kokichi gives every word of his last sentence a pop-like effect.

Shuichi doesn’t know what he means by that, because he doesn’t understand him, he really, really, doesn’t understand him.

“Bye-bye, I’ll see you tomorrow,” Kokichi waves and before Shuichi could respond, he was already out the door.

As Shuichi thinks back on that day, he’s sure that if he understood Kokichi just a little bit more, things would’ve turned out better, because a week later after that confession, Kaede and Kokichi started going out. Shuichi wasn’t envious, not at all, but… he was sure that something was off. Kokichi kept showing off his relationship with Kaede and he kept on giving him questions that only added further injury to the wound.

“Hey, detective, ever wonder why Kaede loves me so much?”

“Think you solved the case for why Kaede belongs to me now, Shuichi?”

“How many unanswered questions do you have so far, Shuichi? Have you figured out why you’re still single and I’m not? Have you figured out how you screwed up? Or about how it’s possible that a guy like me is far from being lonely? Well, you’re the Ultimate Detective with the best of skills, so I’m sure you’ve already figured all that out by now!”

Yes, ever since he started going out with her he won’t stop shoving it. Maybe by now, Kokichi really has grown to like Kaede, but that doesn’t matter since he still doesn’t know how to treat her well. He’s going to hurt her somehow, Shuichi knows it, Kokichi is definitely going to hurt her.

Right now, Shuichi’s investigating that accident that happened at the party, that accident that damaged her pretty face. He has a picture on his phone, a picture he took before the lights went off and the candles were still being lit one by one by Kaito. Tenko is right next to Kaede in that picture- Tenko shouldn’t have been so close to her. Kaito looks so excited lighting up all of those candles in that picture- what made him think it was a good idea? Everyone was there except for Kokichi in that picture- where was he? He should’ve been there, this was his girlfriend’s celebration, he definitely should’ve been there.

Shuichi looks up at the time on his phone and sees that class is about to start.

. . .

It’s been a whole week and much to Himiko’s joy, Kaede’s still in the hospital. Everyone was a lot more distant when the incident happened but slowly grew out of their faze. The small girl kind of wishes that they were still distant.

Kokichi’s right in front of her, maybe now since people were getting back to their old self, he would too. She lures over to him on her desk and sees that he’s only finished one question on the ten question assignment they were given; it doesn’t look like he can focus. She taps his desk twice and calls his name, having him turn around to face her.

The smile he gives her when he faces her sends warmth to her heart, and she finds herself getting too nervous to speak properly. “D-do you need help with your work?”

“No… I already got the whole thing done because I’m really smart.”

“I can see your paper, you know.”

“Oh crap, you’ve figured me out,” Kokichi laughed and was interrupted with an upcoming yawn.

‘His yawn is cute, but he should seriously get some sleep…’ Himiko thought of an image of him sleeping on her lap and quickly dismissed the thought from embarrassment. 

Kokichi’s phone vibrates from a notification and he opens it to read a text message. He giggles, “Kaede’s telling me that Tenko keeps on spamming her with apologies… You should tell Tenko to cool it.”

Himiko makes a whining sound and takes out her own phone to send a message. “Get some sleep, you have bags under your bags,” Kokichi reads it out loud and pouts playfully, “Aww… My face is still cute!”

Shuichi hasn’t finished his work, being too busy thinking about how Kaede lights up whenever he steps into her hospital room. From what she tells him, Kokichi has been visiting her a lot and has been keeping in contact. ‘That’s nice. Now, where was he when she was moments away from getting her face burnt?’

He spoke with Tenko three days after the accident when he was sure that she was willing to talk. What she told him now rings in his head, “When I fell, I felt like I was pushed… No, I shouldn’t be making excuses; in the end, I’m the one who bumped into Kaede! It’s all my fault!”

She kept on rounding everything that occurred to be because of her due to her guilt, making it a little hard to listen to. But if she was pushed, then it couldn’t have been her fault. Who pushed her? Looking at the picture on his phone, he sees that the people around the brunette are Kiibo, Himiko, and although a bit hidden in the picture, Ryoma. One of them must have pushed her.

But Shuichi has to take into consideration for if they purposely meant to push her and if they purposely did it in order to harm Kaede. Well, it seems strange for any of them to suddenly fall against Tenko. Does it matter if it was on accident? No, Shuichi knew himself well enough to know that he doesn’t really care, he just wants to put the blame on someone so he’d be at peace.

‘Kiibo, Himiko, or Ryoma… Ryoma’s too small to push someone with that much force… No, hold on, he’s strong for his size, but even if he did push her, he would only be able to push her legs, so she shouldn’t have fallen in the direction that she did. Kiibo… It could be him. Then again, from where he is and where Tenko is, that’s an awkward angle to push her; he would’ve had to lean over Himiko, and knowing her, she definitely would have complained about him leaning against her head. So… could it be Himiko?’ Shuichi finds it hard to believe that she’d do anything that cruel. 

He looks across the room to where she sits and sees her talking to Kokichi. She’s been talking to him a lot since Kaede left, she even appears to be a lot more energetic, like she’s not unnerved in the slightest; or maybe she just gets this energetic when she’s with Kokichi.

From where Himiko was standing, she’d have the easiest time pushing Tenko onto Kaede, so she seems like the most likely suspect. Shuichi is going to have to question her, and so he approaches her and asks, “Himiko, can I speak to you in private once all of our classes end? We can talk in the hall near the computer lab.” That hall is always nearly empty, and by the end of the day, no one goes by it.

Himiko seemed to be thinking about it and finally responds, “Nyeh… Sure…”

Shuichi notes how Kokichi looks at him but doesn’t bother to say anything; he must be really tired.

Before any of them could notice rapid footsteps, Tenko came slamming Himiko’s desk and shouting, “I won’t let you be with Himiko alone! I’m coming with her!”

“Go ahead, I don’t care…” surprising even Tenko, Himiko agreed to let her come with no annoyed groans.

. . .

As Himiko was walking to meet up with Shuichi, she felt more than annoyed about what’s been happening. Despite Kaede being in the hospital, Kokichi had still been communicating with her through the phone as well as visiting her a lot. It seems that he’s grown further attached to her, but that doesn’t make sense, Himiko took away her beauty; she ruined her. What is there to love about her?

The magician was beginning to think that Kaede must be doing something in the hospital that she doesn’t know about since she never visits her once, and also that Kokichi is lying to himself. He must be lying to himself, he’s a liar; he must have realized that his love for Kaede has been nothing but a spell and now he’s denying it. This situation is very frustrating.

Also, Angie has requested for her to water her plants while she and her parents were on vacation, and despite Himiko rejecting to do so, she ignored her and kept thanking her for agreeing on it. ‘I should never water her plants and let them die just to teach her a lesson.’

And right now, the thing that’s bothering her most of all is Tenko, who doesn’t know how to keep her mouth shut. “Remember to not let your guard down, Himiko! Shuichi might come off as polite, but he’s a man, so he must have some disgusting intentions underneath!”

The only reason why Himiko let Tenko tag along is that the thought of being alone with a boy she doesn’t know that well made her nervous, but the things Tenko’s telling her right now is only making her feel worse.

Seeing Himiko arrive alongside Tenko, Shuichi greets them, “Hello Himiko and Tenko. It would’ve been better if I could talk with Himiko alone, but this is fine too.”

“It better be fine!” Tenko responds, already having a hand holding on to Himiko’s shoulder. The small girl shudders at the contact.

“Okay, I’m not going to beat around the bushes, I’m going to be straight forward; Himiko, were you the one who pushed Tenko onto Kaede?”

Himiko flinched, her skin going pale. It’s hard for her to keep a crime of hers hidden when she’s being interrogated. 

Before the redhead could respond, Tenko spoke up, “Himiko would never push me! No one pushed me in the first place!”

“Tenko, I want to hear what Himiko has to say,” Shuichi tells her sternly, making her quiet in hopes that Himiko would defend herself.

“I… I didn’t do anything… and even if I did, i-it’s not m-my fault,” she stammers, staring at the floor. “I mean, yeah, I pushed her, but... but…”

Tenko quickly swoops in, “It was on accident! Himiko didn’t mean to do it!”

“Yeah, exactly! It was Tenko’s fault for not catching her balance!” Himiko began to accuse her friend, who immediately agreed with her without feeling the least bit hurt. 

“It was my fault! I’m the one who landed Kaede in the hospital! I’m the terrible one!”

This isn’t going well, Tenko’s defending her too much. “Tenko, stop protecting her, you’re only making her look worse. Himiko, tell me why you pushed her, that’s all I want to know,” Shuichi ordered her, trying to sound as calm as possible although Tenko’s frequent outburst as to how she’s the guilty one was making it hard.

Himiko’s now violently trembling and pulling down on her shirt. ‘He’s figuring me out… I’m going to end up in jail… I don’t want this…! I don’t want to be here! I want Kokichi, I don’t want to be here, I want to be with Kokichi... I want Kokichi!’ panicking thoughts began spiralling through her head as she tried to calm down but couldn’t. She felt unsafe, so completely unsafe, and stressed and desperate to just hold on to the boy who calmed her down a lot, the boy who once held her in his arms and gave her a kiss that made her want to cling on to him forever. 

“Stop making her feel guilty!” Tenko shouts, snapping Himiko out of her worried thoughts.

‘Yeah, hold on… I’m not guilty, all I did was use my magic to fight against Kaede’s… Kaede is the guilty one and she’ll forever be the guilty one no matter what. I’m innocent, I’m completely innocent. I’ve never done anything bad in my life.’

“Tenko, she appears to be guilty. If she did something bad like burning someone’s face, especially if it was done on purpose, then we can’t go easy on her!” Shuichi tries to reason with her, wishing that she wasn’t there in the first place.

The brunette continues to deny it, “But there’s no need to be hard on her because Himiko doing something bad is impossible! She’s a pure, sweet mage who wouldn’t do anything bad in her life!”

‘That’s right, I’m a sweet mage, nothing I do is wrong. No matter what I do, it’ll never be wrong…’ Himiko finally gets out of her thoughts and speaks, “Tenko, you should go start up the car. Mama’s wait at home, and if you take any longer in dropping me off, I’m sure it’s going to get her worried.”

“Oh yeah, that’s right! Come on, Himiko, let’s go!” Tenko grabbed a hold of her wrist and she slipped out of it.

“I want to settle a few things really fast, just go without me,” Himiko informs her. She was sure that Tenko was going to protest, but the thought of making her mother worry must have gotten to the fighter's head because she gave an “okay” and ran off.

‘Huh, she shooed Tenko away. She appears a lot calmer now, too…’ Shuichi observes. He was going to question her, but she questioned him first, “Shuichi, you like Kaede, don’t you?”

This question caught him off guard for being so sudden. “Yeah, I do. Why…?”

“I’m sorry for hurting Kaede, I really didn’t mean it… I just pushed Tenko because I got annoyed that she wouldn’t respond to me; I didn’t mean to push her that hard…” she fibs. She can’t look him in the eye still, but she could speak a lot more calmly. She’s sure that she never used to be this good at lying about heavy stuff like this, she must have gotten better at it from talking to Kokichi a lot.

As Shuichi hears her apologize, he began to grow a lot more soft towards her. He heard the answer, Himiko pushed Tenko on accident. Now that he’s hearing it, he doesn’t know why he wanted to hear it in the first place or what he was planning to do once knowing. “It’s okay, Himiko; I’m sorry if I was coming off as harsh on you.”

“It’s okay, I know you care a lot about Kaede, just like how Kokichi cares a lot about me.”

“Kokichi…?” the mention of the boy’s name has Shuichi puzzled.

“Yeah, he cares a lot about me. I mean, he kissed me when I was feeling sad, so he must really like me!”

“He what!?” Shuichi shouts in shock. Himiko continues, but her voice was now going in the background as Shuichi’s thoughts were invading his mind. ‘He kissed Himiko? He barely shows up at Kaede’s party where she gets her face burnt and he kisses Himiko?!’

“Yeah, he kissed me. I think he’s going to break up with Kaede soon, which means that you have a chance with her! And if he dumps her soon after that accident that landed her in the hospital, I’m sure it’ll be easy for you to get close to her!” Himiko tries to push the idea in his head without realizing that he’s not hearing a word she’s saying. “Well, I got to go now, Tenko’s waiting for me. Bye, Shuichi,” she waves goodbye to him and walks away to the nearest door outside. 

As she walks to Tenko’s car, she was shaking from excitement. ‘I did it, I actually got away, and all I had to do was lie! Now not only am I safe, but there’s a good chance of Shuichi winning over Kaede, and then Kokichi would come to me! I couldn’t ever have been able to lie that well if I haven’t been with Kokichi a lot. He saved me again! I want to save him too, save him out of the spell he’s under. I should at least be able to help him sleep…’

. . .

It’s three in the morning, and Kokichi is still texting Kaede in bed. He’s afraid that she’s bored being alone in a white room all day, and tries to keep her company as much as he can.

He’s grown so much more care for her after seeing her in that blue hospital gown, after seeing the effect that the fire has left on her. He doesn’t know why, but since she’s been in the hospital, he’s been feeling a lot more lonely, even though Himiko has been talking to him a lot more.

Even now, when the time’s on three, he receives a text from Himiko of sparkles and star emojis and reads, “I’ve cast my ‘doctors recommended sleep schedule’ spell on you. You should be asleep now…”

He giggles and sends her a reply, “You should be asleep too.”

A response gets sent to him, “I’m not going to sleep until you go to sleep, so then you’ll have to go to sleep. Please go to sleep soon… I’m really sleepy…”

“Okay Himiko, just for you~”

“Yaayyyy….” That was the last text he received from her that morning, she must have quickly fallen asleep. After that interaction, Kokichi goes back to texting Kaede.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Song: Pacify Her
> 
>  
> 
> This chapter focuses mostly on Shuichi, and I don't know if you can tell in my writing, but I had the most difficult time writing this and I don't know why. I hope it doesn't ruin the reading experience too much and I really hope that I'll have more fun writing the next chapter (I probably will).


	9. Rainier Cherry

Shuichi doesn’t know what to do with the new information he received from Himiko. He finds it strange how she didn’t seem to have a sense of guilt for helping Kokichi cheat on Kaede, but he’s not sure if he should really care about it that much; the problem here isn’t about Himiko. He could bring it up to Kokichi, but what good would that do? The boy would definitely just lie his way out of it, and making him confess he did it won’t do much, anyway; in the end, this doesn’t seem to be about Kokichi, either. No, this is all for Kaede, he wants to do what will keep Kaede safe; letting her know now about what’s going on behind her back would break her heart less than waiting for her to find out for herself when she catches the two during the act.

Yes, he’ll tell Kaede about it, but telling her naturally won’t make her believe him so easily, so he needs to bring it up in another, more convincing way. During her last day at the hospital, he’ll let her know.

. . .

They’re alone in the hospital room, just the detective and the pianist. They’ve been having chats that doesn’t mean anything and at some point, she began talking about Kokichi. She talks about how she loves the way he really cares for her, and now is the perfect time to mention what he’s been wanting to tell her; now is the time to not think about what effects would come to the other two involved by sharing such information, because in the end, Kaede matters most, he wants a girl like Kaede to have the happiest life, who even with the large burn mark that spreads on the side of her face from one side of her jaw to her forehead, is still the most perfect girl that he knows and loves.

“I’m so glad to hear that you and Kokichi still get along as friends, Kaede,” he brings up the conversation.

“Huh? What do you mean ‘as friends’? We’re still a couple,” Kaede gives him the confused reaction that he was aiming for.

“What? No, that’s not right, he was kissing Himiko just a while ago. Did you guys get back together, by chance?” 

He catches her eye twitch as her expression grows into one of concern. “He was kissing Himiko…? Really…?” the devastation in her voice made the detective feel guilty, but he can’t back out now and leave her with a much more broken heart later on, he has to let her know.

“He didn’t tell you? Well, makes sense if you guys got back together; seems pretty awkward to mention making out with another girl while you were in the hospital before you became a couple once more.”

Kaede goes quiet for a while and finally speaks with a nervous giggle, “Um- yeah, good point…”

He takes note of how she never corrected him on how there was never a break up in the first place. The silence in the air being uncomfortable and wanting to look away from the glum look on her face that’s giving him guilt, he gets up and says, “Well, I have to go home and finish my homework; will I be seeing you at school tomorrow?”

“Oh yeah, I’ll definitely be there,” she assures him with a small grin that he knows she’s pushing herself to put on.

‘Don’t regret things, Shuichi, this is for the best. I’m sure she’ll make the right decision,’ he thinks back on how she never informed him on how a breakup never happened and follows his thoughts, ‘...I hope she does.’

Once Shuichi has completely left, Kaede thinks on how her own homework that Kokichi brings to her just as he does every day is already finished thanks to them working on it together. She unzips her backpack that’s nearby and pulls it out. Right on the upper right side of the paper is a sentence that one can make out a few of the letters for but not the full words; “I love my piano freak girlfriend.” This is the sentence that Kokichi wrote on her paper and the sentence that she quickly erased because having the teacher read such a thing on her homework with the handwriting that one can easily tell belongs to Kokichi seemed too embarrassing.

She can easily believe that Kokichi and Himiko kissed, or more so that Himiko kissed him. She’s not upset at him in the slightest and still loves him with all her heart, but she begins to feel the complete opposite about herself.

. . .

Himiko never saw the aftermath of Kaede’s burn since she never visited her in the hospital, so seeing the work she’s done to her gave her the feeling that a student feels when they get their test back to see they got a perfect score.

A whole burn mark from the left side of Kaede’s jaw all the way to her forehead, her left eye noticeably being less wide than her right. Her hair was trimmed as well.

When the pianist stepped into the room, she felt that everyone was staring at her, which made her look to the floor to avoid eye contact. The room was silent with the only thing being heard was a pencil on paper. Shuichi was the only one not staring at her, knowing that it’ll only make her uncomfortable, but he did look up from whatever he was writing to give her a smile that read “You’ll be alright.” That smile made her feel good enough to start walking again from the spot that she froze on.

It was so silent, Himiko found herself about to fall asleep until she heard a desk be slammed that jolted her straight up. “Whoo! Kaede’s back!” Kokichi cheered as he jumped out of his seat to squeeze her into a hug, “Come on, guys, give her the welcoming song we practised while she was away.”

“Gonta not remember practising a song,” Gonta said in the tone of a question.

Kokichi gasped, “You don’t remember? Seriously? That’s terrible! You’re terrible, Gonta!”

“Gonta so sorry!”

“Don’t listen to him, ya’ idiot, he’s making shit up,” Miu informs, unamused by the leader’s lie.

“Nuh-uh! There is a song! You’re both terrible for not remembering it!” Kokichi claims stubbornly.

“If you’re so sure that we rehearsed a song, then why don’t you start us off?” Kiibo challenged.

“Uh- I can’t, I don’t sing the first verse.”

Kaede giggled at his silly antics that broke everyone's uncomfortable mood. Kokichi’s still being his adorable, silly self. Even with the new markings on her face, he’s still so loving to her. She’s very thankful for that, especially since she hasn’t been doing much for him in return. 

“Kaede! I’m so, so, so sorry about what I did to you during the party!” Tenko apologized desperately.

Kaede groaned and puffed out one of her cheeks, “Stop that! You spammed my phone every day I was at the hospital, you know that? You don’t have to apologize, I forgive you. It was on accident, anyway.” She really doesn’t want people to treat her weirdly after that incident.

“You forgive me?! You’re so kind!” Tenko gushed from happiness.

On her seat, Himiko felt irritated over how Kaede was able to easily make a girl like Tenko treat her normally. How come she can’t do something like that? It’s as if magic is the only thing she can do…

In the middle of class, students have partnered up to finish a worksheet that’s been given to them about a class assigned book they’ve been reading, Kaede immediately takes the seat next to Kokichi that Kirumi just got off of.

“Nyeh… Kokichi and I are already working together, you know…” Himiko grumbled. Kaede knows, she knows all about how they work together, and hearing Himiko’s bothered voice makes her even more disappointed in herself. 

“We could always do the work together,” Kaede suggested.

“I mean, less work for me, so whatever…” Himiko wants to observe why Kokichi still likes Kaede despite her being just as unattractive as her now.

“Um- actually… I didn’t read the whole chapter,” Kaede laughed sheepishly, “It was too boring, you know?”

“Oh, I totally know what you mean,” Kokichi agrees with her, “and that’s why I never read the chapter at all, so you’re gonna have to help me.”

“Seriously? Looks like I’m going to have to do more work then I thought considering that I’m the only one who finished the chapter,” Himiko sighed and opened up her book. 

“Look at Himiko go, doing most of the work! That’s my Himikokoro!” Kokichi praised her, patting her head.

“‘Himikokoro’!? What do you mean by that?!” Himiko questioned, trying to not focus on the way he’s petting her so her cheeks won’t burn up.

Kaede believes that she shouldn’t be upset by this; after all, she only did half of the work while Himiko did all of it, so of course Himiko was going to work better with Kokichi than she was. She should’ve put in more effort.

As the two were copying down Himiko’s paper full of answers, Himiko suddenly mentions, “Are you okay with that huge burn mark on your face, Kaede? Doesn’t it pain you? Don’t you want to put on makeup or something to cover it?” 

She was pushing it on to her, trying to get her to lose confidence, finding it intoxicating that she could still have any. She remembers putting makeup on to cover marks up once… Everything about unwanted marks hurts, even hiding them does. She just wants the witch who’s stealing her healer to receive the same pain that she’s feeling is all.

“I don’t want to put too much makeup on my face. Besides, it doesn’t bother me in the slightest,” the sound of covering up such a big scar seems like it’ll take a lot of time, Kaede thinks, and she wants people to get used to her as fast as possible, anyways. The fact that she injured her face is far from what she finds the most painful, her injury isn’t her fault, but losing her lover would be entirely her fault. She’s the one who’s screwing things up and she’s the one who plans on fixing it.

The pianist leans close to Kokichi and speaks lowly to him, “Are you busy today? I want you to come over to my house.”

“I’m free. Watcha planning?” Kokichi asks in the same low tone as her.

“It’s a surprise,” Kaede winks at him teasingly.

“I hate surprises!” Kokichi complains, trying to make her lose confidence into telling him and realizing that she isn’t going to budge. “I’m excited about the surprise.”

“Hey, Kokichi,” Himiko called to him, making him shift his attention towards her, “that last question is an opinion based question, so put your own answer.”

“‘Who’s your favourite character and why’…? Hmm… I like Tom,” Kokichi answers out loud as he writes it down.

“Tom? Why?” Himiko asks, grimacing on the mention of the character.

“I dunno, he just seems clever and manipulative, I think he’s cool. But in the end, all of the characters do bad things so they’re all terrible!” Kokichi huffed, completely shooting down the statement he just said before that.

Kaede wasn't focusing on their conversation, she was thinking about how when she winked at Kokichi, her vision became blurry, which isn’t surprising since she was looking with her eye that was more damaged by the fire than the other one. A blur of Kokichi and Himiko, that’s what she saw, Kokichi with Himiko behind him with her blurry eye. The fact that her vision has gotten weaker when looking at her boyfriend makes her want to cry, but she’s focusing on not doing so.

. . .

When Kaede requested Kokichi to come over, she never mentioned how her parents were going out and won’t be back till seven.

As she fills up the tub with water, she thinks about if her plan will work. She finds herself so very stupid at this moment; why would she tell Himiko that Kokichi used to have a crush on her after finding out that she likes him? What kind of girlfriend would do that? ‘It’s because you were desperate to get her to like you, Kaede; you want everyone to be your friend. You’re so stupid. Why’d you think that telling her that would get her to like you? You’re so bad at getting what you want, you’re such an idiot. You never think before you do anything, do you?’ Kaede begins to tear up at her own thoughts, ‘Kokichi was always so nice to you, he’d always hug you and kiss you and tell you how much you mean to him… why couldn’t you do the same thing back? Why were you too embarrassed to do something as small as hold his hand? Himiko’s not afraid to show him her love, she kissed him despite knowing that he has a girlfriend. Did he kiss her back? Do I deserve to be upset for if he did?’

If she keeps these thoughts up, her bathtub was going to be full of her tears before the faucet could fill it up.

‘No, stop it, you still have a chance to make it up to him. You still have time to show him how much you love him, so smile, he doesn’t want to see you upset,” Kaede’s tears dried up as she forced a smile, softly biting on her lower lip as she hummed the tune “Canon in D”.

The doorbell rings when Kaede finishes putting the last of the fake rose petals around the bath frame. Knowing who it is, she grinned as she wasted no time to open the door. 

“Hi, Kaede! Let me see my surprise!” Kokichi gets straight to the point as he steps into her house, already having his jacket partly off of him.

“You sure you want to see it so quickly?” Kaede asks, knowing that she’s going to have to show him it quickly before the water loses its warmth.

“Yes! What is it?” Kokichi looks around the house, trying to find any kind of gift for him. “Your folks aren’t at home?”

“No…” Kaede tries to answer as if that wasn’t important.

“That means… I get to have sexy time with my lovely Kaede!” Kokichi guessed excitedly and got close to her face, questioning, “I’m right, right? We’re gonna play that game that adults play?”

“N-no! I mean…” Kaede did an embarrassed groan and began walking away. “Just follow me.”

“Yes, ma’am!” Kokichi skipped after her.

Kaede was pep talking herself in her mind to not back out on what she was planning on doing as she walked with him. She cranks the doorknob- there’s no backing out now- and opens the door to her bathroom, letting him see the work she’s done; Rose petals scattered around the frame of a bathtub that’s filled with pink bubbles and looks long enough to fit two.

“We’ve been together for quite some time, and I’m sure that this is the kind of thing that couples do…” Kaede drifts off, wanting a response from him.

“You want to… actually do that…?” Kokichi asks, ‘that’ being the adult play he mentioned a minute ago.

“No, not that! We’re only going to take a bubble bath together, that’s all… I mean, unless you want to play something like that…” Kaede felt incredibly awkward, the scene having had played out better in her head.

Kokichi felt as if he’s having cold water be poured at him, despite the heavy warmth of the room. What will he get out of this? It seems too personal to share a picture with anyone. But Kaede seems so fragile in the past days, and he still felt guilty for missing out on most of her party, so he finds it better to not upset her. “Okay… We’re only going to wash each other, right?”

“Yes…” Kaede couldn’t understand why he sounded so uncomfortable when he was teasing her about doing more than this just a while ago. She needs to get rid of this awkward mood. Since Kokichi didn’t look like he was going to move anytime soon, she started off by unbuttoning her shirt, but she was only able to make it to her collarbone when he stopped her by holding her wrist.

“I… don’t think I can do this.”

Kaede felt something heavy in her throat as she asked, “Why not…? Is it too soon?” She doesn’t think it’s too soon, they’ve been dating for over a year now and he’s so comfortable with her that he’ll sometimes creep his hands down her lower back when they hug just to tease her. 

“No… I… don’t want to show myself; I don’t want to be touched yet.”

“Why not? You always touch me…”

“I know, but… it’s different when you touch me. I can’t explain it, but I’m not ready for that.”

Kokichi can explain it perfectly: he doesn’t want her advancing on him when he can’t let Shuichi see it, there’s no point in doing things with her if he can’t make Shuichi envious. Of course, he can never say that to her.

Seeing the sad look on her face, he tries to cheer her up, “I mean, I’m not completely uncomfortable, you can still kiss or cuddle me if you want; I love when my sweet Kaede hugs me!” He really does, he loves when she does anything that he could show off. “How about we put on a movie and snuggle with some popcorn? That sounds sweet.”

“Yeah, I guess that’s nice… I want to take a bath, though; think you can wait?” Kaede really wants to be alone.

“Yep! I’m gonna play with your piano!” he chirps and waits for her to pout at him as to how she keeps telling him not to since all he does is pound on random keys but receives nothing from her other than a look that looks like she’s waiting for him to leave, and so he does.

Now that she’s alone, she feels completely comfortable into stripping herself naked. She slowly dips her legs into the bath and sits down, curling up to her knees. She can feel the bubbles sticking to her back and coming around her neck like a choker. ‘You ruined it again, Kaede, you messed up. I want to take back everything, I want to take back this whole evening and the things I told Himiko. Why can’t I do anything right? If he and Himiko kissed, Himiko’s definitely the one who advanced on him. Did he like that? Was he fully comfortable with that? Is it because she was able to show him so much love in a little amount of time while I barely showed him anything for the longest time and suddenly decided to jump on him? He’s not comfortable with me now. Why do I keep on messing up? Everything I do only makes things worse and now I’m going to lose him.’

Kaede wants to throw away all the stupid rose petals she scattered and pop all of the bubbles. She put so much that she’s struggling to see the water itself and it felt suffocating. She shut her eyes tight and brought herself down into the water, the only thing sticking up on air being the tips of her hair.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Song: Soap
> 
>  
> 
> Yep, I felt more enjoyment writing this chapter than the last. Also, the climax is coming.


	10. Cherry Girl Picking Out Grapes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the longest chapter so far, which I honestly find surprising.

Himiko doesn’t understand; she cast a spell on Kaede to make her unattractive yet Kokichi became more attracted to her than he was before. Something is off, something isn’t adding up. 

The girl was so busy in her thoughts that she didn’t realize how fast she was going with chopping the onions until it was too late. She drops the knife and curses under her breath, sucking on her cut. Her mom asks her if she was okay and hands her a bandage, to which Himiko responds that she’s fine. ‘I never had to answer a question like that in quite a while…’

She picks the knife up once more and sees a small stain of blood on the cutting board, having the single word “nasty” cross her mind. The tears in her eyes begin to roll down- it must be because of the onions. She finds it hard to breathe through her nose- it’s the onions. She feels a pit in her stomach- it’s the onions- wait, onions don’t cause nausea. “Mama, is it okay if I stop…?” she asks.

“Of course, you’ve helped enough. You seem tired, actually, you should lie in bed,” her mom suggests, focusing on her eyes.

“Good idea…” Himiko takes two steps towards her room and realizes that she hasn’t let go of the knife. She drops it on the counter and walks away at a fast pace, her footsteps being heard across the hall until she made it to the rug of her room. Something is creeping into her memory, something that feels like her brain is rejecting. She wants her brain to continue to reject whatever it is, but the thought of Kaede seems to be linked to it somehow. 

‘Whatever, it doesn’t matter, this is too tiring to process. Just sleep, sleep and you’ll get a break from it all…’ She doesn’t bother changing into her pyjamas, going straight under her blanket and letting her head softly hit the pillow. ‘Sleep and you’ll escape it all…’

Red and brown. 

Red and brown with an interior that’s hard to make out because everything is so dark.

There’s a lot of red, too much red. 

A man’s face looks horrified; how was this man’s life like?

A scream keeps playing through the air that causes her ears to literally bleed.

The man’s body begins to melt, and that’s when she notices that he was never dressed.

Her neck feels like it’s twitching as she continues to move her hands without knowing what she was really doing.

The heavy amount of red gets more balanced once a sudden wave of brown liquid begins to pour out of the rug.

The sense of smell is completely dead, thankfully.

She doesn’t know what's going on, but everything seems so surreal that she wants to cry. She can’t make out where she was at with all the shadows yet a feeling was telling her that she was in a familiar nightmare.

“Okay- something's wrong- I get it- I get it! Something’s wrong, I know!” she starts to stammer without knowing what she was actually saying or why she was saying so, “It’s tiring, so stop. This place is tiring. I- I- I already know!”

The brown liquid gets higher and the sight of it was disgusting enough to make her neck crank at all directions as if that was a normal human response. 

She wishes to leave wherever she was at, she wants to end it, and just as she was wishing it, everything evaporates away, leaving steam with no actual temperature. “Oh…? Magic? Nyeh, my magic did it!” she cheered, the negative emotions she once had vanishing as fast as sound. 

She can hear the distant sound of a piano playing calming music. Everything around her is all white; just a large, flat, endless space that’s all white. She felt that this was good, since looking at all those dark colours was getting frustrating. This white makes her feel all better again; white like an angel to watch over her, white like light feathers to lay down upon, white like his soft skin to press against hers and let her know that she’s done nothing wrong and only deserves the best.

She wants the best for her.

The piano kept playing. It’s faded and soothing, but it keeps on playing; it’s getting on her nerves. She walks to the sound, her footsteps not making a sound. She was about to trip- although nothing was there to make her do so- and was caught by a long purple rope that warped around her waist. She follows the rope that stays wrapped around her and finds that its other end is tied to the leg of the piano. 

The piano keys press down although no one was there to press upon them. She stares at this scene for a while and tugs on the rope, breaking the leg of the piano during the process.

Everything begins to wrap around her like a distortion effect on an editor app. 

She wakes up to the sound of her alarm clock and groans, shutting it off.

Going to the kitchen, she has the last parts of her dream in mind.

. . .

Shuichi can’t sleep no matter how much he tries. There’s a storm outside, and the shatter of the rain is the only thing his ears are taking in. 

It was so sunny just this evening, and there were no heads up about a storm on the weather broadcast or at least none that he heard.

He’s questioning if he should text Kaede. ‘Is she asleep right now? I hope so, it’s pretty late…’

Shuichi opens up his keyboard and texts, “You awake, Kaito?”

Kaito responds four minutes later, “Yep, I can’t sleep because I watched a horror movie.”

“Kaito… are you scared?”

“No! Forget about me, why are you still awake?”

Shuichi snorts at his friend’s obvious attempt in changing the subject. “I feel like I messed up on something… I’m not sure that I made the right choice.”

For something so vague, Kaito was still able to respond right away, “You have to be more confident than that, man! You’re Shuichi Saihara, you’re really smart! Every choice you make is right, and if not, then you make it right!”

The astronaut doesn’t know a thing as to what Shuichi’s talking about, but the smaller boy still appreciates his motivational words. He texts, “Do you think Kaede’s okay?”

“You mean with her burn?”

Shuichi stares at his question and wonders as to what he should respond with. “Yeah, with her burn.”

“She’s a strong chick, I’m sure she’s doing great!”

“...Thanks, Kaito.”

He turns off his phone and sets it on his dresser, finally being able to ignore the storm and fall into slumber.

. . .

“Kokichi, is this yours?” after what seems like a week, Kaede finally starts a conversation with the purple head on her own. She holds a keychain of a steel horse in front of him.

“Oh yeah!” Kokichi happily swiped it from her. “Where’d you find this?”

“On my bed. I don’t know how it could’ve gotten there, but it was there.”

Himiko’s shoulders twitched at the answer.

There was a second of awkward silence until Kokichi broke it, “That’s weird. I wonder how it got there.”

The leader felt as if people were staring at him, making him both unnerved and bothered. Specifically, someone behind him is starring in a way that gives him anxiety and a heavy pit in his stomach. “Anyways, I’m so happy that you’ve talked to me on your own, Kaede! Seriously, it’s like you haven’t missed me or something.”

“I see you every day, Kokichi,” Kaede cracked a smile.

“I know, but I miss the hugs you’d give to your boyfriend!” Kokichi whined.

“Really…? I’m sorry,” Kaede feels like she messed up again. She thought he’d want some space after that bath stunt she tried to pull; looks like she made the wrong choice again. She kneels down to where Kokichi sits and gives him a hug, having his head rest against her chest. “I love you, Kokichi,” she spoke softly, “I love you so much.”

“Really? Do you love me more than the piano?” he teased.

“Do you love me more than pulling pranks?” she teased back.

“Oh yeah, I love you so much! Besides, I hate pranks! ...Just kidding,” he giggles.

‘Kidding about the love part, I’m sure,’ Himiko thinks as she slumps in her arms. She’s getting the thought that the spell is broken at this point and he’s only pushing himself onto Kaede because he’s denying that his love has been fake the whole time. It’s okay, she’ll break him out to face his true emotions just as he did for her.

Himiko hears a friendly, muscular voice call out to her, “Hey Himiko, you look glum; what’s wrong?”

Kaito’s trying to start a conversation with her, which has her confused considering that he’s never been interacting with her much. “I’m just tired…” Himiko sighed.

“You should come train with me, then! I know a workout that’ll increase your high spirits!”

“Oh my gosh… You’re the male Tenko.”

He laughed at her statement. “Good! That means we’ll become great friends!”

“Does it look like Tenko and I are ‘great friends’ to you?” 

“We’re not great friends, we’re amazing friends, you stupid male!” Tenko butted into their conversation.

“Wow, you’re more off than Kaito,” Himiko responded.

“...Ah… Ah haha! Funny joke, Himiko!” Tenko laughed nervously. “Anyway, she doesn’t need your dumb training, all she needs is for me to teach her Neo-Aikido!”

“Isn’t Neo-Aikido only used to defend someone from danger?” Kaito asked.

“Yep, so from every nasty boy. I’m sure that once she learns the technique of getting rid of menaces, she’ll be happy twenty-four seven.”

Hearing that made Himiko feel really miserable, which went unnoticed by Tenko.

“Your training is good for getting rid of danger, but my training is good for getting rid of negativity,” Kaito claimed.

“Eh-” Tenko went speechless, seeming like she had nothing to say to that. “Good point… Alright then, I’ll allow you to train her, but I’m going to be right next to you both so you don’t try anything on her.”

“Kaito Momota, Luminary of the Stars, never tries anything terrible! He’s an awesome hero!” Kaito boasted.

“Should I remind you two that I never agreed to train?” Himiko questioned.

“That’s why we’re giving you a push!” Kaito answered.

“Boys shouldn’t push girls into doing anything! That’s why I’m going to be the one to give her a push; you have to train with us, Himiko, it’ll be good for you,” Tenko insisted.

Himiko doesn’t want people to push her into doing things, she just wants them to listen to her. But clearly, that’s nearly impossible for people to do so when it comes to someone like her.

She considers how they’re trying to help her and sighs, “Fine, whatever. Just don’t expect me to do much…”

“Great, then we meet at the nearby park once school ends,” Kaito set a time and place for them.

“Uh, I refuse to listen to a degenerate,” Tenko scoffs, “We meet a minute after school ends.”

“That makes… literally no difference, but whatever,” Kaito rolled his eyes and muttered, “You’re kind of obnoxious…”

Thinking that their arrangement has finally been settled, Himiko goes back to focusing on Kokichi and reaches a hand out to him. “Koki-”

“Kyaaah!” Himiko hears the most ear-piercing squeal coming from Tenko. “We’re going to have so much fun training together, Himiko!”

“Why aren’t you back in your seat?” Himiko asked, feeling annoyed.

“Because I want to talk to you.”

“That’s the spirit, Tenko!” Kaito encouraged.

“...Ew, you don’t cheer me on,” Tenko gawked.

With those two around and not looking like they’re going to leave anytime soon, Himiko gave up on asking Kokichi the worrying question that’s been floating around her head.

. . .

The school’s over for the day, and Himiko finds herself at a park with Kaito and Tenko. She gets the feeling that she’s going to have to use a lot of tolerance for today. 

“Alright team, first goal: a hundred push-ups!” Kaito ordered and laid down on the grass.

“A hundred is nothing! I can do a thousand push-ups in one go!” Tenko bragged and started the exercise right away.

“Nyeh… I hope you’re not actually expecting me to do a hundred… I don’t even want to do one,” Himiko admitted.

“That sounds like negativity, you’re going to have to do two-hundred push-ups if you keep that up,” Kaito threatened playfully. The sound of that got Himiko to go on the ground and get into position. She’s surprised that Tenko actually made a good enough space from her and Kaito considering that it’ll give a spot for the magician to get near him. 

Himiko does one bothering push-up and loses all of her motivation to continue, letting herself slump onto the floor. “Yep… I’m not feeling any positivity out of this… Only making me feel glummer.”

“That’s because you don’t have the spirit, Himiko! Do fifty push-ups and I’ll get you a king-size chocolate bar,” Kaito claimed.

“Why would I want that…?”

“I think it’s cool receiving candy from an astronaut.”

“That does sound cool!” Tenko agreed. “Too bad that the astronaut is a boy.”

Himiko could only groan. She managed to do eleven push-ups before giving up again. Despite being far from the goal Kaito set for her, he still congratulated her, “Good job! Your effort is what matters most!”

He repeatedly pats her head, giving her a strange warm feeling. “What the heck…?” she mutters. She’s weak to head-pats.

Tenko looks like she’s choking on her words as she stammers, “Men- menace…! Stop touching her!”

“Alright, but support is always nice to have. See? She looks happy,” Kaito pointed out.

“She’s clearly mad, you idiot!” 

“No, I’m not. I’m…” Himiko has no idea how she’s feeling, not being able to say anything. Hearing Kaito praising her and patting her head made her feel oddly comfortable. Maybe he does know a technique to make her feel better…

“Ready, guys? Next goal: a hundred sit-ups!” Kaito announced.

Tenko was already on her fourteenth sit-up when Himiko was getting to her third one. She can’t stop her leg from lifting off the ground. Laying on the ground and looking up to the sky, her mind easily drifted off from reality. “...What do you think a boy would be on a girl’s bed for?”

“Wh-what!?” Tenko breaks from her position as she stares at Himiko with concern.

“To dream about her, of course,” Kaito answers with no falter. 

“That’s… such a cute answer,” Himiko responds.

“The only dreams a guy would have about a girl are dirty ones,” Tenko spat in disgust. “Why’d you ask, anyways, Himiko?”

“I think Kokichi was on Kaede’s bed.”

“Yeah, well, she is his girlfriend,” Kaito shrugged. Tenko couldn’t take the response as calmly as Kaito did. “That menace! I’ll break his bones!” Tenko shouted. “Ugh… Just forget about Kokichi, you’re with us right now.”

Himiko doesn’t think that she can do that, but she didn't speak his name any more. Going back to struggling and failing her sit-ups, Himiko complained, “Why can’t my legs stay down!? This is stupid!”

With a single blink, she found Kaito in front of her knees, pushing down on her feet. “Try it now,” he instructed. She brought herself up and found it to be a lot easier, although she found herself a new problem; she’s looking right up at him... and coming close to his face... and he has a hold of her legs- “I- I don’t want to do sit-ups anymore!” she stuttered anxiously, shifting herself away from him. A vision flashes in her head that leaves her throat feeling tight, although thinking about it would only cause her more trouble.

“No? But you were doing so good,” he said, confused about her sudden reaction.

“I don’t care… I don’t want to continue.”

Tenko stopped doing her own sit-ups and asked with worry, “Are you okay?” Although, asking such a question was worthless because she immediately made her own conclusion before Himiko even said anything and spouted, “This is your fault, degenerate! You upset her!”

“Stop it,” Himiko scold, “I’m fine.”

From everyone who’s tried to help her, Himiko believes that Tenko has done the worse job, so she doesn’t want to hear any backlash on Kaito’s methods coming from her. 

She hears her ringtone for her phone coming from her backpack and goes to the bench where she’s set it, getting it out and seeing that Angie’s calling her. She answers and hears a cheerful “hello” coming from the end of the line. The follows her hello with, “Come over my house so I can show you how to treat my plants.”

“No,” Himiko deadpans. She tries to ignore the bickering going on from Kaito and Tenko.

“But if you come, you’ll get homemade cookies,” Angie persuaded. “Just came out of the oven.”

“I don’t care.”

“And… we can bake a cake!” 

Angie clearly wanted to hang out with Himiko; probably because her out-of-country vacation is coming up. However, the redhead is really tired by now and only wants to go home at this point. “Coming over to your house means that I have to inform my mom, though, and that sounds like too much of a pain to do.”

“My parents well inform her! I’ll even come to pick you up,” Angie said, refusing to back down.

“But I’m at the park…”

“No biggie! You’re at the one near our school, right? I can get you.” Silence follows before Angie speaks again in a hum, “And I’ll invite Kokichi~”

“Nyeh!? What makes you think that’ll get me to come?” Himiko questioned with embarrassment.

“It’s what Atua is telling me… Nyahaha!”

“Does Kokichi even want to come?” From the exact mention of his name, Himiko hears the bickering between Tenko and Kaito come to a stop.

“I’ll make him if he doesn’t want to, but I’m sure he’d want to, anyway.”

“Nyeh… Fine, I’ll come,” Himiko gives in and hears a victory cheer from Angie before hanging up on her. She sees Tenko staring at her as if she just said that she’ll jump off a cliff and asks, “What?”

“Y-you can’t leave, Himiko! Kaito’s still training you! Wouldn’t you rather be with him?” Tenko asks despite disapproving of the astronaut just a minute ago. 

“What do you mean ‘wouldn’t I rather be with him’? Angie has cookies, I’d much rather be with her,” Himiko answered, not fully understanding her reaction.

Kaito held onto his heart as if he’s been shot but still puts on a confident smile. “It’s okay, Himiko, I get it… Cookies are great! Go for it!”

“No! Not ‘go for it’!” Tenko whacked him on the head. “Don’t you care about Himiko at all!?”

“Yeah, obviously I do, but her training is over for today, let her get her award.”

“Don’t you have any better award to give her!?”

Himiko doesn’t see why Tenko’s making this such a big deal.

“Hmm…” Kaito thinks about it and an idea comes to mind. “You’re right! Himiko, you’ll get a hug from the Ultimate Astronaut himself!”

“Wh-what!? What are you thinking!?” Tenko questioned nervously. Himiko hears no rejection from her and sees that she has to reject to it herself, “No thanks, a high-five is good enough.”

It’s not just Kaito, but the thought of any guy hugging her makes Himiko’s heart race with nothing but complete anxiety; well, except when it’s Kokichi, the day he actually held her in his arms back in autumn still gives her a happy, warm feeling even now when the leaves are growing back to their branches.

“Sounds good to me,” Kaito settles with that and gives her a high-five. Kaito’s really nice, but… his hand is so big, even a high-five makes her feel on edge.

Kaito stretched his arms until a satisfying crack was heard. “Welp, that was fun. Thanks for hanging out with me today, you two!” he said his goodbye and started to walk away.

“Your welcome…” Himiko tells him as he leaves, “Thank you for trying to help me.”

“Trying” serves a big emphasis in that sentence.

Kaito gives her a warm smile although she couldn’t feel anything from it. “Anytime! Remember to smile.”

Tenko stayed quiet the whole time during the exchange, and once Himiko was sure that he wasn’t in rage to hear the two, she asked, “What’re you trying to do?”

“Huh? What do you mean?” Tenko snaps out of whatever thoughts she was thinking of and fails in putting on a natural-looking grin.

“You let Kaito do things a lot more freely around me than you usually would to other boys, you even wanted him to stay. Why’d you do that?”

“I-I didn’t!” Knowing that she’s bad at lying, the brunette quickly gave in to the girl’s glare, “I was just trying to get you to like someone who’s not Kokichi, even if it is a guy.”

“Nyeh!? You know!?” Himiko asked with surprise. 

“Yeah… your expressions show it.”

Himiko felt embarrassed; was she obvious to read? “N-never mind that… Just tell me why you care, anyways…”

“Because Kokichi is the worst kid in the class!” Tenko wasn’t afraid to give her answer, “And he’s already taken… I don’t want for you to feel heartbroken.”

“Are you saying that he wouldn’t love me…?” Himiko felt a discouraging sting.

“No, that’s not it! I’m sure he’d love you if he wasn’t with Kaede, he’d be a moron if he didn’t.”

At that moment, Himiko began to realize how much of Tenko’s encouragement she runs off of; she believes in her magic, she believes in her innocence; hearing her say that she doesn’t believe she can ever get Kokichi because of Kaede hit her on the chest like a stone.

“Besides, Kaito is better than Kokichi. I mean, yeah, he’s a degenerate, but at least he never made you cry. He even told you to smile! I think it’ll be a lot more healthy if you liked him than Kokichi,” Tenko continued her explanation, “Is it the purple hair and eyes that you like about Kokichi? Because Kaito has those, too!”

Tenko must really think that Himiko has some kind of childish crush on Kokichi if she thinks she actually cares about something as shallow as the colour of his hair. 

“Do you think I’m a child or something?” Himiko was beginning to get worked up, “I love Kokichi because he makes me feel safe and comfortable, not because of something as stupid as the colour of his hair! What can Kaito do? Kaito never helped me when I was hurting most, Kokichi did!”

“Please don’t be mad at me, Himiko. I’m only saying this because I care for you!” Tenko desperately tried to explain herself. “I don't know how big of a lie he shows himself around you for you to think that he’s safe, but trust me, he’s not! Even if he wasn’t with Kaede, I bet he’d only control you and cheat on you and break your heart! I mean, you see all the trouble he causes for people all for a joke, right?”

“He won’t do any of those things to me! He’d never want to hurt me! How could you even say all that about him? Kokichi is the only person who knows what to do to make me feel happy!”

“I know how to make you happy! I know all of your problems!” Tenko claimed, taking a hold of her hands. Tenko says a lot of things that make Himiko feel worse, and that line proves it. Even the way she thought it’ll be a good idea to hold her hands while saying that only made things worse. Himiko pulled her hands out of her’s and shouted, “If you really did know how to make me happy then you wouldn’t be saying stupid things like that!”

She storms off, leaving the taller girl to walk and call after her at first until seeing that it’s best if she leaves her alone.

The redhead feels her phone vibrate in her hand and sees that’s she’s gotten a text message from Tenko that reads, “I’m sorry for upsetting you, Himiko. Please know that I only told you the things I did because I care for you. Your feelings for Kokichi aren’t healthy.”

The only thing that Himiko finds to be “not healthy” is all the times Tenko thought she was doing something that’ll make her feel good. Her feelings for Kokichi isn’t unhealthy at all, it’s justified.

She turns around to the sound of a car’s horn and sees Angie waving her hands out for her. Sitting up in the front, Angie greeted her, “Hey-ho! You’re coming over my house for the first time, whoo!”

“Oh yeah, you’re right,” Himiko seriously never noticed that she’s never been over till Angie pointed it out to her. The artist was clearly excited, for once they made it to her home, she gave her a tour. “Here are my paint brushes,” Angie shakes a cup full of brushes and sets it back on her dresser. She points at a small cactus sitting on the windowsill near her bed, “That’s my cute little cactus, I give it lots of love and sunlight.”

“Wow, that’s cool,” Himiko said without much of a care.

Angie looks out her window and widens her eyes as if she’s seen something exciting. “Oh! Oh! There’s my dad cutting the grass in the backyard. Hi, papa!” she knocks on her window and waves when he notices her. ‘Her dad is here yet she invited Kokichi?’ Himiko thinks and says with the tiniest bit of envy, “My dad would never let me invite a boy…”

Keeping quiet about it for a while, Himiko believes it’s about time she just says it, “Guide me to Kokichi.”

“Oh, sure!” Angie closes her eyes and looks as if she’s listening to a voice, “Mm-hm… uh-huh… Atua says Kokichi should arrive in ten minutes or so.” 

Just as she said that, the doorbell began being spammed. Angie was silent although kept her smile until she could ignore the bell no longer and said, “And by ten minutes, Atua means now.” 

She goes to the front entrance with Himiko behind her and opens the door for Kokichi to quickly step in. “Cake. Give me. Now,” Kokichi says as if he doesn’t have much time to speak.

“We have to bake it,” Angie explained. Kokichi turned around without a second thought and was held by his wrist. “But the cookies are ready!”

‘Kokichi would go over a girl’s house for something as small as sweets…?’ for the first time, Himiko felt jealous over someone who isn’t Kaede. The thing Tenko told her about Kokichi doing things that’ll lead to heartbreak is getting to her.

Kokichi peers over and sees Himiko staring at him, not looking like she was going to greet him anytime soon. “Oh! You’re right about that; the cookies look so sweet! Oh- wait- that’s just Himiko,” he joked, making the girl snap out of her thoughts only to blush in surprise. He adds on with a devious smirk, “Pretty silly of me to mistaken your pet monkey for cookies, huh, Angie?”

“H-hey! I’m not a monkey!” Himiko pouted, being taken off guard by his sudden insult. “What kind of person would own a pet monkey, anyway?”

“My neighbour back in my island owns a pet monkey,” Angie answered, not getting the absurdity of it. “They’re fairly common to own.”

“I’m only messing with you, Himiko,” Kokichi laughs and pokes her cheeks, “I like the way your ugly face looks when you get worked up.”

“You’re such a jerk…” Himiko mumbled in annoyance. ‘Kaito wouldn’t say anything upsetting to me…’

. . .

As the cake was cooling down from being in the oven, the three were sitting on a couch and eating cookies. Finishing his cookie, Kokichi groaned, “I’m feeling too lazy to get another cookie…. one of you are going to have to give me yours.”

After hearing that, Angie quickly scruffed down her cookie, make the two stare at her in both surprise and wonder for how she can fit a whole thing in her mouth so fast. “Okay… Uncalled for, but very impressive,” Kokichi complimented, “Looks like I’m taking Himiko’s!”

Before Himiko can think about what he said, he snatched her cookie from her hand and took a huge bite out of it. “Nyeh! I would’ve given you one if you just asked!” Himiko complained. For some reason, Kokichi seems to be trying to irk her a lot more today, kind of like… before she was taken away from everyone else. 

“No you wouldn’t!” he argued back as if he was actually taking things seriously, “Himiko’s a liar!” 

“The only liar here is you!” 

Surprisingly, Kokichi made what seemed to be a genuine smile from hearing that.

“It’s frosting time!” Angie announced, hopping off the couch and running to the kitchen where the cake awaits. She looks through her fridge and asks, “What colour of frosting should we use? Pink, blue, or red?”

“Pink,” Kokichi answers without much thought. Angie pulls out a bowl with pink frosting and they begin to slather it around the vanilla cake. 

“Himiko, do you know how to put on frosting?” Kokichi asked, seeing the way she slabbed the frosting to the point where the cake crumbs were all around it. 

“Yeah, I’m doing it right now…” Himiko answered, thinking that she was doing an alright job at it.

“You’re making it look ugly.”

“Wow, thanks.”

“Here, let me help,” Kokichi went behind her, putting his hand against hers and guiding the spatula gently across the surface. 

“Nyeh…! What are you doing!?” Himiko asked in surprise.

He ignores her and continues, “See? You have to treat it gently; show it your love. You don’t want to hurt it, do you?”

He’s so close to her that he’s basically speaking to her ear, making her legs feel light. She responds, “Cake can’t feel pain!”

He lets go of her. “There. You should be able to get it right now; after all, monkey see, monkey do, right?”

He hit her with a childish insult again. ‘What’s with him?’ Himiko doesn’t believe it has anything to do with a spell from Kaede; could it be that he really is in denial like she questioned this morning? It’s that he’s in denial that his love with Kaede was fake this whole time and he actually likes Himiko, and so he’s trying to cover up his feelings for her with insults, that must be what’s going on. She responds to his insult feeling annoyed nonetheless, “Are you still calling me a monkey!?”

“It’s a figure of speech, dumb-dumb,” he snickers.

Angie finds something in her search through the cabinet, revealing a bottle of colourful heart-shaped sprinkles. “I’ve got sprinkles!” 

“Sweet!” Kokichi takes it from her and begins to sprinkle as much amount as a jungle gets water on a rainy day. “See that, Himiko? I’m giving the cake my love,” he swooned as if doing something romantic.

“More like drowning it,” Himiko replies.

Kokichi pretends to take offence to what she said, “Hey! I’m just covering the ugly frosting that you messed up on.”

“Uh-huh. Just wait till you choke on that amount of ‘love’ you’re giving it.”

“Nyahaha, that’s enough of that,” Angie took the jar from Kokichi before he could sparkle any more. The three take a step back and look at their finished work; pink frosting covered in vanilla cake crumbs as if it’s been brutally raked across the surface and so much heart sprinkles that small hills have been created on top. “It’s… a work of art!” Angie gleamed, “Atua must have possessed me when making this cake!”

Kokichi awed, “It looks so cute. Like, yeah, it’s ugly, but it’s trying its best, and I really helped it.”

“...It looks hideous,” Himiko stated bluntly, having far less enthusiasm than the rest.

Kokichi gasped, “How could you say that!? Hmph! Of course someone like you wouldn’t see its beauty.”

Himiko’s… actually getting tired of his presence at the moment.

“Okay! We can eat it… right after I go to the bathroom,” Angie announced, running out of the room.

Waiting for the artist to arrive once more, Kokichi started going through her fridge. “Oh, the red frosting is whipped cream,” Kokichi noted.

“What? Is the pink frosting not whipped cream?” Himiko asks.

“It’s buttercream. I wish Angie told me, whipped cream tastes better.”

Himiko was pretty sure that most people liked buttercream.

He uncovers the bowl of frosting and dips his finger in, putting his digit in his mouth to get a taste. “You’re… not suppose to be eating that,” Himiko stated.

Kokichi put his index finger against his lips and slowly closed the door for the fridge, “Shh, she won’t know.”

They wait a little while longer and Kokichi starts to grow impatient. “What’s taking her so long? Eh, forget it, I’m just going to take a piece right now,” he opened up every drawer there is in the kitchen and doesn’t find any knife to use. “Where the heck are all the knives?”

Wanting to help, Himiko doesn’t think twice when she spills “I have a knife.”

“Really? Where?” Kokichi looks all around her, trying to find it.

“Uh- never mind, I don’t,” Himiko took back. He’s so close to her that it has her sweating.

“Really?” His smile drops when he asks, “Why are you lying?”

“Nyeh? I’m- I’m not lying,” she squirms from the way he looks her dead in the eye.

His playfulness springs back, “Wow, you’re so bad at lying that it’s laughable; kind of cute, though.”

Is he getting to her? Why won’t he just leave her be? Kaito let her be when he saw how uncomfortable she looked, even Tenko gave her space when she saw that she was upset by her; why won’t Kokichi leave her alone?

“Fine, I’m lying,” Himiko admitted and took the kitchen knife out of her purse. Her heart was beating heavily and all she wanted to do was look away from him. 

Although seeing the knife, the boy keeps his smile as he holds on to her wrist. “Why do you carry a knife around in your purse, Himiko? You’re such a weirdo.”

Kokichi’s praying that it’s just because she’s a weirdo.

“It’s only this one time… I never knew it was in there,” despite failing in lying to him all the other times she tried, she continues to do so. He can feel her arm shaking in his hand.

“What are you using it for…?” He’s smiling no longer as he guesses, “Are you hurting anything with it…?”

Himiko felt her whole world drop at that moment. He figured out, he figured out from a foolish slip-up. She’s questioning why she even put a knife in her purse this morning, it’s not like she was going to use it, right? Right? That’s it, it’s over; he’s going to hate her and she’s going to find herself in a grey room that reeks of death, and at that point, she’s not going to care because she’ll only want to die- die- die-

“Himiko, have you been hurting yourself?”

‘What?’ her mind stops and takes a turn, ‘He’s worried about me? He’s concerned for me? He cares for me? He’s been insulting me all day and sees that I’ve been carrying around a knife and still, he thinks of my health first?’

He’s not going to hurt her, he’s not going to think poorly of her, he’s just going to do whatever makes her better, he actually likes her. He likes someone like her, a girl who’s dirty and nasty in every way and can never be clean no more. Even when he teased her for the fun of it, she couldn’t truly be mad; because when they’re in a house together where he’s loose about what he tells her like he’s that comfortable with her and where they cook together and he gets close to her, guiding her arm and teaching her how to cook, she feels like they’re a married couple. 

He can read right through her, he can give her hope into recovering; that maybe, just maybe, she might be normal and clean again, she might be okay. Kaito can’t do that, Kaito does for her what he does for everyone who looks upset because he doesn’t know how to handle her, and Tenko doesn’t understand how to help her despite being with her for so long, she only seems to make her feel worse. Why is that? It’s because they’re not her healer, they don’t have the power to make this mage feel better again and return back the energy that she’s lost for so long, Kokichi does; Kokichi’s her healer, and she loves her healer so much.

His hand is small around her wrist, it doesn’t make her feel nervous. She doesn’t feel scared around him even when he gets as close to her as he is now. 

“Am I hurting myself…? I just want you to be mine, I guess I am hurting myself… the day we kissed was one of the only times I felt happy in a long time… and when you put your arms around me, it- it- it was the only time I felt safe since- since all those grimy things that have happened…” she admits, shaking in tears. “I’m sorry, I don’t think I can continue without feeling that again.”

Kokichi takes the knife from Himiko, which she allows him to do so, and sets it on the counter. He looks like he has a lot of things going on in his head until bringing her to his chest and putting his other hand around her waist. 

“Don’t worry anymore, okay? I don’t know what has happened to you or why you feel safe with a guy like me, but... I’ll be with you if it keeps you from hurting yourself,” he tells her softly as if it was necessary to keep Angie from hearing him all the way in the bathroom. “...I’m sorry.”

Himiko doesn’t know what he’s apologizing for, especially at this moment where he has her in his arms and is telling her that he’ll be with her; she feels as if that’s all she ever wanted to hear in her life as she looks into his eyes that shows absolute care for her.

So this is all it took to get him to stop lying to himself and admit that he likes her, huh? All she had to do was show him how much pain she was in, she doesn’t have to inflict pain on others. Himiko’s so glad, she feels like a lot of heavy things are being lifted off her shoulders.

Kokichi’s making her feel so much better than anyone else ever could, he’s the one for her and now it seems like she almost has him; almost. He still never said what he’s going to do with Kaede.

They hear a door open and Kokichi immediately lets go of Himiko. Oh, so he’s trying to hide what happened, huh? That gives her a bit of an insight into what he’s planning on doing with Kaede.

“I’m here!” Angie announced happily.

“Yeah, only took you like, ten minutes,” Kokichi said sarcastically while rolling his eyes as if he didn’t just do something to Himiko that lovers do. 

“Uh, Atua told me it’s best to stay in the bathroom and do my hair, sooo…” Angie responds as if she won their little fight. She opens the dishwasher and takes out a slicing knife. “Do you guys want to eat the cake now?”

“Yeah, I’ll have a slice,” Himiko answers with a smile. She doesn’t remember getting happy over something as tiny as a piece of cake.

“I-” Kokichi was about to say that he wants some too until stopping himself, “...Actually, never mind, I’m suddenly not in the mood for cake.”

“Really? But you seemed excited for it,” Angie questioned, “You worked really hard on it, too.”

“Yeah, I just lost my appetite. Besides, the cake is vanilla, how lame,” Kokichi says despite vanilla being his favourite flavour. He takes out his phone and says, “I’m going to head home, my dad just texted me.”

“Don’t you want some cake to take home?” Himiko asks.

Kokichi’s already putting his shoes on when he giggles, “Didn’t you hear me, Himiko? I said that vanilla is lame.”

“Okay, bye Kokichi,” she waves to him. 

The door is open and he steps outside, looking back at her with a grin. “Bye…”

Angie begins to wave too as she says, “Byanora! Bye-bye!”

The door is shut and Himiko and Angie are left by their self. There’s silence in the room other than Angie’s humming as they eat their cake when Himiko asks, “Hey, if you know that I have a thing for Kokichi, why would you invite him over?”

“Why? Because you’d have an excuse to be with him, of course,” Angie answers.

“But… he’s with Kaede.”

“Yes, but he clearly likes you, not her.”

“What?” Himiko was caught by surprise.

“It’s what Atua told me!” 

“Oh, of course,” Himiko knew she shouldn’t have thought too much about it.

“Besides, there are more benefits of him being with you than Kaede, so it’d only make sense to have him be with you.”

Himiko stands corrected, Angie does have an interesting reason. “So… you support me?”

“Yep! He belongs with you!”

Angie’s view is a lot different than Tenko’s, and Himiko finds it a lot better. After all, hearing that makes her so happy and relieved. ‘Yeah, he does belong with me… I shouldn’t have been worried about him or getting jealous by how he's easily going to Angie’s house, because in the end, he chooses to be with me. The only time he wouldn’t is when he’s been put under a spell… so… it all depends now on what he’ll do with Kaede.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Song: Gingerbread Man


End file.
